Assam BJP blames both AGP, Cong for violence in state

Assam BJP blames both AGP, Cong for violence in state
SAMUDRA GUPTA KASHYAP

GUWAHATI, DEC 4: The Assam state unit of the BJP has blamed the ruling Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and the Opposition Congress for allowing the law and order situation to deteriorate so badly. The outlawed ULFA has gunned down more than 60 persons, mostly Bihari and Marwari settlers, in Assam over the past five weeks.

Rajen Gohain, BJP state president and Lok Sabha member, has said that while the ULFA was on a rampage, the Congress, instead of helping solve the crisis, was only adding fuel to fire by inciting militants and trying to get political mileage out of the massacres.

``The intentions of the Congress as well as the ULFA are the same. Both are trying to get President's Rule imposed in the state,'' Gohain said here today, adding: ``The state Congress leadership is only dreaming of capturing power by getting the government dismissed with the Assembly elections drawing closer.''

The state BJP chief pointed out that a high-powered delegation sent by the central party leadership recently had confirmed in its report that the Congress had a hand in the recent incidents of violence. ``Lusting for power, the Congress has also joined hands with foreign powers,'' Gohain charged.

Meanwhile, Bijoya Chakravarty, the Lok Sabha member from Guwahati and Union Minister of State for Water Resources, has termed the AGP-led government in the state useless. ``The AGP government has proved its uselessness by failing miserably to bring the situation under control,'' Chakravarty said.

She wondered why Prafulla Kumar Mahanta was still continuing as Chief Minister and added that the Centre would be compelled to intervene if the state government failed to bring the situation under control.

``It is time Chief Minister Mahanta owned moral responsibility for the recent spate of violence and quit office,'' Chakravarty, who was till a few years ago a leading AGP leader, remarked.

And in sharp contrast to what the state BJP chief Gohain said, Chakravarty alleged that there was scope to believe that the state government too had a hand in the recent killings.