Inaugurating the new terminal building for Guwahati’s Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport on Saturday afternoon, Prime Minister Narendra made a twin pitch ahead of the upcoming state elections, of development and “anti-infiltration”.
Modi arrived in Guwahati on Saturday afternoon for a two-day visit to the state. After his arrival, he first unveiled a statue of Assam’s first chief minister and Congress leader Gopinath Bardoloi at the airport, and then a new terminal building developed by Adani Airport Holdings Limited. Also present at the event were Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Union Civil Aviation Minister Rammohan Naidu, Union Minister and former CM Sarbananda Sonowal, and Adani group chairman Gautam Adani.
Modi praised Bordoloi for “standing against his own party” to oppose Assam being grouped with East Bengal ahead of Partition, saying that the BJP “rises above party lines to honour patriotism”.
“Congress had conspired to erase the identity of this place… since before Independence. When the Muslim League and British powers got together and were preparing the ground for dividing India, at that time there was a plan to make Assam too a part of East Pakistan. Congress was going to become a part of that conspiracy, too. Then Bordoloi ji stood against his own party. He opposed this move to erase Assam’s identity and saved Assam from being separated from the country. BJP is always rising above party lines and honours patriotism. Under Atal ji’s leadership when the BJP government came to power, he (Bordoloi) was given the Bharat Ratna. Bordoloi ji had saved Assam before Independence, but after him the Congress once again started work against Assam,” he said.
“To increase its votebank, the Congress gave a free hand to its votebank infiltrators in Bengal and Assam. The demography here was changed. These infiltrators captured our jungles, captured our land. The outcome of this was that Assam’s security and identity was compromised. Today Himanta ji’s government and everyone in the team is freeing Assam of this illegal and anti-national encroachment,” he said.
Sharpening his attack on the Congress, he accused it of “coming in support of infiltrators” by opposing moves like the SIR.
“The central government has become firmer about stopping infiltrators. To remove illegal infiltrators, they are being identified. But the Congress party and its INDI alliance partners have openly come in support of anti-national issues. Even the country’s Supreme Court has talked about removing infiltrators but these people are making statements to save infiltrators. Their lawyers are making prayers in court to save infiltrators… Such people are not going to save the interests of Assamese brothers and sisters. These people will allow your lands and jungles to be captured by someone else… My brothers and sisters in Assam, we have to be very vigilant The Assam for whose identity people like Bordoloi sacrificed their lives, we have to protect it… We have to save Assam’s progress from getting derailed,” he said.
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Speaking about the new airport terminal, he said that around 1.25 crore passengers will be able to travel through the terminal every year.
Targeting the Congress on this count too, Modi said, “Amenities like a modern airport, modern infrastructure for connectivity, for any state, this is a gateway for new possibilities and new opportunities… When you see that in Assam, so many fabulous highways are being made, airports, then you also say, now justice has started being done to Assam. Otherwise for Congress governments, Assam and the Northeast’s progress was not even in their agenda. Congress governments and the people sitting in them used to say ‘who even goes to Assam and the North East?’… The mistakes the Congress kept making for 6-7 decades, Modi is solving them all one by one… For Modi, Assam’s progress is a need as well as a responsibility. That’s why in the last 11 years, in Assam and the North East, developmental projects worth lakhs of crores have started.”
Modi will on Sunday do “bhoomipoojan” of the new brownfield Ammonia-Urea Fertilizer Project at Namrup, in Dibrugarh within the existing premises of Brahmaputra Valley Fertilizer Corporation Limited.
