Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said Assam narrowly escaped being separated from India during the pre-Independence period and credited the state’s first Chief Minister, Gopinath Bordoloi, for thwarting a plan to merge Assam with East Pakistan.
PM Modi accused the Congress of repeatedly compromising Assam’s identity, both before and after Independence.
Speaking at a public gathering in Guwahati after inaugurating the new terminal building of the Lokapriya Gopinath Bardoloi International Airport, PM Modi said that while the Muslim League and the British were laying the groundwork for the Partition of India, there was a parallel conspiracy to detach Assam from the country.
“At that time, Congress too was moving towards becoming a part of that controversy. It was Gopinath Bordoloi who stood firm, even against his own party, and saved Assam,” the Prime Minister said.
PM Modi alleged that after Bordoloi’s time, Congress once again adopted what he termed “anti-Assam and anti-national” policies.
“Congress committed another grave wrong by attempting to erase the very identity of this region. The roots of this wrongdoing lie in the period before Independence,” he said.
The Prime Minister accused the Congress of pursuing vote-bank politics through religious appeasement, claiming that unchecked infiltration was encouraged in Assam and West Bengal.
“Open permission was given to infiltrators who became their vote bank. This altered the demography of these regions. Forests and land were encroached upon, and the security and identity of Assam were put at stake,” he said.
Highlighting the present state government’s efforts, PM Modi said the Assam government under Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is working decisively to reclaim land and resources from what he described as illegal and anti-national encroachments.
Earlier in the day, the Prime Minister inaugurated the newly constructed terminal at LGBI Airport, built at a cost of nearly Rs 4,000 crore.
India’s first nature-inspired airport terminal, the facility has been designed to reflect Assam’s natural landscape and is expected to significantly boost passenger capacity, regional connectivity, tourism and trade across the Northeast.
As part of his two-day visit to Assam, PM Modi will also pay tribute to the martyrs of the 1979 Assam Movement at the Swahid Smarak Kshetra, dedicated to the memory of 860 people who lost their lives during the agitation.
On Sunday, the Prime Minister is scheduled to interact with 25 students from different schools under the ‘Pariksha pe Charcha’ initiative during a 30-minute session aboard the cruise vessel ‘Charaideo’ on the Brahmaputra river.
He will then travel to Dibrugarh and onward to Namrup, where he will lay the foundation stone for a Rs 12,000 crore ammonia-urea fertiliser plant.
The project is expected to provide a major boost to industrial growth and employment in Assam. PM Modi will also address a public meeting there before concluding his visit to the state.