Gogoi hits back at BJP

Guwahati, Mar 1 (UNI) Asom Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today hit back at the BJP, saying that the party had no concern for the state and was trying to gain political mileage by criticising the government.

Addressing a press conference here, Mr Gogoi charged BJP general secretary and state in-charge Pramod Mahajan with electoral gimmick in releasing a 'chargesheet' against the government.

He challenged the BJP to compare the performance of NDA and UPA governments with regard to Asom and alleged that the saffron party was trying to gain political mileage by communalising politics.

''For them Muslims are foreigners while Hindus are refugees. This is nothing but politics,'' he said, refusing to accept that during his tenure infiltration had gone up.

''I shall quit politics if that can be proved. Rather the infiltration figure has become negligible, a fact even the visiting AASU delegation to the border had acknowledged,'' he added.

He asserted that the upgradation of National Register of Citizen would ease the problem to a great extent. ''Hopefully the work will be over by another two years as documents are being compared and good progress has been reported,'' said Mr Gogoi.

Regarding the law and order situation, the chief minister said the Defence Ministry, after his persuasion, had restrained Army operations in the state, ''I was told that Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee has already sent written instructions to the field units to avoid any unnecessary excesses on common people during counter-insurgency operations,'' he said.

Regarding the ULFA peace talk, he urged the ULFA to come for negotiations directly.

''I have no direct knowledge about a statement made by Dr Indira Goswami that the ULFA will participate in the next round of talk.

But if that happens, it would be a very good sign,'' he said.

He, however, said he would never be 'soft' towards the ULFA but would also not like to take the path of confrontation with them.

UNI MT SG RN MA RS1554