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Assam violence: Nation paying for Congress vote-bank politics, says Arun Jaitley

ET Bureau Aug 10, 2012, 02.09AM IST
(Nation paying for Congress…)

NEW DELHI: BJP on Thursday sharpened its attack on the Manmohan Singh government over the Assam situation alleging the state and the country were paying for Congress' vote bank politics.

BJP asked UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi to spell out her stand on the 1985 Assam Accord signed by former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi saying BJP was in favour of its implementation.

"Pursuit of an alternative vote bank is responsible for the root cause of the problem today...If you stick to vote bank politics, the security of Assam will be in doubt," leader of Opposition in the House Arun Jaitley said during a debate on Assam in Rajya Sabha. He alleged that the government was treating it as a transient law and order problem, though it was the result of the demographic change that has taken place in the region. "To capture the territory of India with its military might was not possible. Encroachment through immigration was thus the alternative strategy. There was a convergence of the vote bank interest of Congress and those in our neighbourhood. India was silently invaded by millions of immigrants," he said. He said Congress did not have to import illegal immigrants to increase its vote bank. "No other country has allowed such a blatant encroachment by illegal foreign nationals as we have in parts of Assam," he said.


Replying to the debate, home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said the government was taking the matter "very seriously" and had initiated a CBI inquiry. "The government is taking this issue very seriously. A CBI team has gone there and an inquiry has started...I have instructed the Army to be alert," he said. The minister's reply did not satisfy the Opposition benches. While Kironmoy Nanda of SP asked why he was wasting the time of the House, JD(U)'s Shivanand Tiwari wanted to know if the prime minister was satisfied with the reply.