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Congress serves one family: Modi
Congress serves one family: Modi, Narendra Modi, Rally in Guwahati, Joi Aai Axom, Gopinath Bordolo. BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi chose his words carefully as he set out to strike the right chord at his maiden rally in Guwahati.
- Raises politically emotive issue of land transfer to Bangladesh
- Rakes up illegal immigrants issue from across the Bangladesh border
- When Cong don't remember Patel, how can they remember Bordoloi?"
Guwahati: BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi chose his words carefully as he set out to strike the right chord at his maiden rally in Guwahati.
Chants of "Joi Aai Axom" (Be our motherland Assam be victorious) filled the Khanapara ground, barely a few kilometers from the capital Dispur, as an encore to Modi. "Gopinath Bordoloi along with Sardar Patel saved Assam from going into East Pakistan. But the Congress serves only one family. When they don't remember Sardar Patel, how can they remember Bordoloi?"asked Mr Modi.
Gopinath Bordoloi was the first Congress chief minister of Assam post-independence. But his legacy was to keep Assam united in times of partition, especially when parts of Assam were to merge with East Pakistan, erstwhile East Bengal.
One of Bordoloi's sons is a current Congress MLA but much like Sardar Patel, in Assam, Gopinath Bordoloi towers above his party. "Gopinath Bordoloiji deserved a Bharat Ratna much earlier but it was the Vajpayee government that corrected the injustice," declared Modi.
But it wasn't just Bordoloi that the BJP's PM candidate remembered. From Lakshminath Bezbaruah, the most renowned Assamese literateur to Bhupen Hazarika, the balladeer from Bramhaputra, the BJP leader named every icon Assam revered.
And the reference to Bordoloi getting a Bharat Ratna during NDA period was significant. Many in Assam believed that Bhupen Hazarika deserved a Bharat Ratna but the Centre has so far ignored the demands.
He also promised development, jobs but didn't forget to raise the politically emotive issue of land transfer to Bangladesh and the issue of illegal immigrants from across the border.
"The Congress leadership thinks of the country as their personal property. Did they ask you before they agreed to give away your land?" he asked, adding, "Assam Accord was signed during the Rajiv Gandhi period but nothing has been done to identify illegal immigrants and send them across." Modi also quoted Vajpayee, saying, "You can't change geography but you can change history. If you have conviction, your neighbours will accept you the way, you are."
Hitting back at Congress President Sonia Gandhi for her "zeher ki kheti" remark, he said the UPA government was sowing the "seeds of communal poison" in Army by ordering a head-count based on religion.
Taking dig at Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Modi said country needs hard working people and not Harvard-educated. Calls him 'recounting minister'.
