Congress didn’t do anything for birthplace of Sankardev: Amit Shah

Addressing a public meeting at Amingaon in Assam, Union home minister Amit Shah on Saturday slammed the Congress saying that the party did nothing for the birthplace of famous social reformer and spiritual leader Srimanta Sankardev.

Invoking 16th century saint Srimanta Sankardev, Shah said, “Congress didn’t do anything for the birthplace of Sankardeva whose contributions gave recognition to Assam’s history, drama writing, arts and poetry. But BJP believes in strengthening of language, culture, arts of the state.”

“BJP believes that India can not achieve greatness until the culture and language of states are strengthened. India’s culture and arts are incomplete without Assamese culture and arts,” said the union home minister while launching a developmental project bearing a cost of Rs. 188 crore for Batadrava, the birthplace of Sankardev.

Speaking on the occasion, Shah spoke on how Assam’s peace and progress were disturbed by agitations.

“In Assam, there was a period of movements. Many agitations were launched over different issues in which hundreds of youths were killed. The peace of Assam was disturbed and the development was halted,” said Shah.

“There was a time when separatists used to give arms in the hands of the youth in these states (Northeast). Almost all armed groups have joined the mainstream and the startups launched by youth are competing with other startups globally. What is the way forward? Development is the only way forward. Development is happening and will happen further but ideological change is also needed and that can’t happen only through development,” he added.