Cong has blood on its hands from northeast, says Sarma

GUWAHATI: Reacting to the Opposition's no-trust motion, which was primarily focused on Manipur, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday tore into Congress and its MP from Assam Gaurav Gogoi, who initiated the debate on the motion in the Lok Sabha, saying Congress has blood on its hands from the northeast region.
Launching a scathing attack on Congress, Sarma here said Congress' wrong policies and its failure to act are responsible for every episode of violence that have happened in Manipur for the last 75 years, including the ongoing one.
"Because of your wrong handling of the northeast since before the Independence, your history is full of blood. Your hands are full of blood of the northeastern region. You have killed innocent people, you have martyred thousands in Assam and other states of the region. Neither Nehru nor Indira Gandhi nor Rajiv Gandhi did anything to provide any healing touch to the people of northeast," Sarma said.
"Conflicts among communities in the northesat are not born overnight. Congress must analyse that it is all because of their wrong policies and approach towards the people of the northeast that Manipur is burning today," Sarma said.
"Congress has created a situation, put provisions in the Constitution and created safeguards in it. Either all these are creating various problems among the communities or they have not done the things they should have done in the very beginning to resolve the conflict," Sarma added.
He added that Manipur has seen killings of civilians, policemen and Army personnel since the last 75 years. "Data shows 300 people were killed in 1990; 1,100 in 1993; 400 in 1997; 95 in 2001; 140 in 2003; 105 in 2006; 200 in 2008; 220 in 2010 and 165 in 2012. I don't want to name any community and nor all these killings are due to ethnic conflicts, but all these happened during the Congress regime in the state," Sarma said.
Reacting to the Opposition questioning why PM Narendra Modi did not visit Manipur, Sarma said, "During all these past incidents of violence in Manipur, no Congress PM had visited the state. There were two incidents of ethnic conflicts in Assam in 2008 and 2012. In 2008, nearly 64 were killed and there are no records to show that the then PM Manmahon Singh ever visited Assam. In the 2012 conflict, he did come, but for an hour to Kokrajhar as a token visit," Sarma said.