Union home minister Amit Shah on October 8 said that the BJP-led government would remove Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) only after installing peace in Northeast India.
“Rahul Gandhi gave Congress an agenda to remove AFSPA from the Northeast if they came to power (in 2019), for the sake of appeasement. When it was asked of me, I said we will first bring peace in the Northeast and then only will remove AFSPA, which would not happen just for appeasement,” Amit Shah said addressing a public gathering at the inauguration of the newly built BJP office – Atal Bihari Vajpayee Bhawan in Guwahati.
The union ministry of home affairs recently extended the AFSPA, an act that empowers the armed forces to maintain public order in “disturbed areas,” in some parts of the Northeast for another six months.
In an order on October 1, the AFSPA was extended in certain regions of Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh. However, the act was extended in Assam for six months on February 28, 2022, and on December 1, 2021, in Manipur.
This is the home minister’s first visit to the region after the extension of the act.
Congress had made this beautiful N-East, the land of violence, anarchy & strikes. Modi ji brought it back on the path of peace & progress.
কংগ্ৰেছে হিংসা, অৰাজকতা আৰু ধৰ্মঘটৰ স্থান কৰি তোলা বিনন্দীয়া উত্তৰ-পূবত প্ৰধানমন্ত্ৰী মোদী ডাঙৰীয়াই শান্তি আৰু উন্নয়নৰ পথ প্ৰশস্ত কৰিলে। pic.twitter.com/d5FdcQq4OX
— Amit Shah (@AmitShah) October 8, 2022
Addressing the public, Amit Shah asserted that the party office for the BJP is a temple and not just a house of bricks and stone.
“For a BJP worker, the office is not a building, the office is a bundle of emotions. Here the work is outlined, this is where the plans for the development of the entire northeast India and Assam of the BJP are made,” Shah said while highlighting the all-around development in the region.
Expressing his contentment over the development of Assam and the Northeast, Amit Shah asserted that the party’s consecutive rule in the region has ensured an “all-round development”.
“During my Vidyarthi Parishad days, we had never imagined if we would make a government on our own in Assam, but today, the consecutive rule of BJP in the state has been ensuring all-round development,” he said underscoring that instead of arriving in Assam as home minister this time, Shah said he has come as a BJP worker.
Under PM @narendramodi Ji’s leadership more than 9000militants joined the mainstream of development by laying down their arms and leaving the path of violence.
মোদী ডাঙৰীয়াৰ নেতৃত্বত ৯,০০০ৰো অধিক উগ্ৰপন্থীয়ে অস্ত্ৰ ত্যাগেৰে হিংসাৰ পথ পৰিহাৰ কৰি উন্নয়নৰ মূলসুঁতিত যোগদান কৰিছে। pic.twitter.com/K52ExRxuqf
— Amit Shah (@AmitShah) October 8, 2022
“I am very happy today that in the short span of 2014 to 2022, the entire Northeast and our Assam has started on the path of development today. It is a matter of good fortune for a worker like me that the development of both Northeast and BJP (here in NE) are going hand-in-hand,” he added.
He further attacked Congress for making the peaceful land of Assam turn divisive.
“People were always worried that if Assam doesn’t get inclusive growth, it would be a big problem for Northeast. The underlying reason was Congress, which always was keen to make the pious and peaceful land of Assam, a divisive one,” Shah added while alleging that the Congress-led UPA government had made the “great land of Assam a land of disintegration, of terrorism, of strikes, of agitations”.
