As Union Home Minister Amit Shah joined the BJP campaign trail in the state a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the state, AICC election observer Jairam Ramesh said Amit Shah visited the state to spread BJP’s "Drama Baji and Natak Baji" in the state. He also questioned BJP's silence on AFSPA and the drugs flow from across the border.
“What is the BJP going to do on the controversial AFSPA and to control the flow of drugs from across the Myanmar border? How is the BJP going to control the drug menace in Manipur when its government has well established links with the drug mafias?” asked Jairam Ramesh.
The AICC election observer was speaking at a press conference held at the MPPC office in Imphal West.
“Following the flop visit and rally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Manipur, Home minister Amit Shah visited the state on Wednesday to spread BJP’s ‘Drama Baji and Natak Baji’ in the state,” Ramesh said.
Unlike the BJP, the Congress purely goes with the sentiment of the people of Manipur, he said, adding that the Congress pledged to repeal AFSPA from Manipur and to introduce MSP for rice in its manifesto.
Ramesh also recalled the lifting of AFSPA in 2004 from seven assembly segments of Imphal Municipal areas during the then Congress government led by Okram Ibobi Singh.
For the revival of Manipur from the five years of drastic rule of the BJP-led government in the state, the Congress manifesto focusses on three aspects: women, farmers and youths, he said.
To boost women empowerment, the Congress also pledged to provide 33 per cent job reservation for women in all government jobs and construct 15 more Ima markets in all the district headquarters, he said.
The Congress also pledged to strengthen the irrigation facilities in Manipur by implementing a proper master plan and encouraging the farmers to practice double or triple cropping, the AICC leader added.
Countering the allegation made by Modi which stated that Congress plays politics of divide and rule, Ramesh said, “It is an absolutely meaningless and typical Modi’s statement. It is not his nature to speak the truth... Divide is BJPs nature and unite is Congress’s nature,” he added.
The AICC leader maintained that the Congress and its alliance parties (Manipur Progressive Secular Alliance) will form the new government by getting absolute majority in the ensuing elections.
Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee president K Thiere who attended the press conference contended that there is no free and fair election in Manipur. Most of the voters received threat and intimidation to vote for the BJP and the voters are unable to speak out and afraid to attend a political meeting at their own will, he alleged.
Flaying Chief Minister N Biren and the Manipur government for being unable to provide protection and security to the voters to exercise their franchises freely, he said: "I don’t know what the governor of Manipur and the Election commission are doing even after witnessing various election related crimes”.
Thiere also pointed out that regional parties like NPP and NPF has no scope and far vision, their scope ends at Shillong and Kohima respectively, he said, adding that it is only the Congress party which can be trusted as the BJP’s ideology of anti-secularism does not fit with the Northeast people.
