'NDA using terror groups to destabilise Congress regimes in North-East'

New Delhi, June 24: The Congress party on Wednesday accused the NDA government at the Centre of "blatantly" trying to "destabilise" elected Congress governments in the north-eastern states by using terror groups to upset the law and order situation.

"The (union) Home Ministry and the Minister of State (MoS) for Home Affairs are directly involved in creating law and order problems in the north-east," Congress leader V. Narayanasamy claimed while briefing media persons at the All India Congress Committee headquarters here.

Nayaranasamy is the Congress leader in-charge of the seven northeastern states of which four -- Mizoram, Manipur, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh -- are ruled by it.

"Some terror groups are very close to the Minister of State (MoS) for Home Affairs (Kiren Rijiju). In Arunachal Pradesh, Rijiju is directly involved in such activities to destabilise our government. They are trying to destabilise the democratically elected governments. The Home Ministry, MoS Home and BJP President Amit Shah are involved in this. All this is happening with the approval of PM Narendra Modi," charged Narayanasamy.

Rijiju, however, called the allegations "a joke".

"This is a joke and should not be taken seriously at all. There is no point in paying heed to any comments from any person who does not have any support from the people," Rijiju told IANS.

Rijiju, who was in Ladakh for an event and got to know about the allegations made by Narayanasamy through some of the BJP leaders, said: "No one would take Narayanasamy's comments seriously as he was talking without any proof."

Rijiju said he would call a press conference on Thursday and give a strong reply to the false charge levelled against him.

"Even media is not going to believe the allegation made by the Congress leader. No one should make casual remarks on the militancy issue in northeast as it is a very critical issue," he told IANS.

Narayanasamy, however, said the Congress party will raise this issue in parliament and outside it. MLAs of the Congress party were being threatened using terrorist outfits to switch over to the BJP, thereby destabilising the state governments, a statement issued by the Congress in-charge said.

"Ever since the BJP government has come to power, the Centre has been blatantly trying to destabilise duly elected Congress governments in the north-eastern states," the statement added.

He said the government was unabashedly using their power at the Centre and "through the political heavyweights in Delhi, the BJP is trying every trick to attain instability".

"These blatant efforts at destabilisation are not only threatening to divert the democratic will of the people, but have also created a security issue in the area after a long time," he said.

The senior Congress leader said the lives of security personnel were at risk on a daily basis and the people of the region were living in constant fear.

"While Prime Minister Narendra Modi is talking about high moral values and cooperative federalism, on the other hand, BJP President Amit Shah is indulging in disturbing duly elected Congress governments in the north-east," said Nayaranaswamy.

"The central government has appointed governors from RSS background who are acting as destabilising agents and be it the home ministry or the DONER ministry, all are working in tandem with the sole aim of grabbing power through the backdoor," he said.

Narayanasamy said the Naga peace talks failed because of the home ministry's failure to carry all the terrorist outfits to the negotiating table and try to resolve the vexed issue.

"R.N. Ravi, interlocutor for the Naga talks, is said to be unhappy over the breakdown of the ceasefire agreement with the NSCN(K) and is believed to have conveyed to the Prime Minister's Office about alleged 'mishandling' of the Naga rebel group by the home ministry," he said.

"NSCN-K withdrew from the peace talks because of Rijiju's comments that he would not engage with terror groups like them," he said.

IANS