Taking a potshot at the two-day visit of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to the State, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Tuesday said that the Union Minister was busy in politicking for two days in Assam, while the Pathankot was grappling with terrorist attacks by militants from other side of the border.
Gogoi’s reaction came a day after Singh wind up his visit to Karimganj and Dhubri sector of the Indo-Bangladesh border. Singh had arrived in Assam on Sunday and visited Karimganj sector of the Indo-Bangladesh border, while on Monday Singh had inspected Dhubri sector of the border and expressed his unhappiness over the way the works of fencing the border was going on in Assam.
Gogoi also attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said that the Prime Minister’s ‘birthday diplomacy’ has miserably failed. “Modi is touring foreign countries ignoring internal situation. Modi made a surprise visit to Pakistan to attend Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s birthday recently,” Gogoi said while addressing the mediapersons here.
“For two days the Home Minister was in Assam busy doing politics. He could have winded up his Assam tour in one day. Touring the two border areas could have been done in one day only,” Gogoi said. Gogoi further claimed that around 97.75 per cent of the border fencing works in Assam has been complete, which is higher than other States — West Bengal, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura.
“We have completed 97.75 per cent of the total sanctioned works of border fencing in Assam. So How can the Home Minister say that the works are not satisfactoryIJ” said Gogoi.
The Assam Chief Minister also took a shot on the Home Minister, who had stated during Assam visit that the site of attack in Pathankot is cleared of terrorist. “It seems he (Singh) did not have any idea of what is happening and just made a statement. He remembered border with Bangladesh now when election in Assam is drawing nearer, why he did not make visit earlier as it is almost 19 months that NDA Government is in powerIJ” Gogoi asked.
“He (Singh) could have asked me to accompany or have taken the Chief Secretary or the Director General of Police during his border visit. Earlier during UPA’s regime Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil had taken All Assam Students’ Union (Aasu) leaders and Government official. Singh took two MPs despite the fact that they do not represent those areas,” Gogoi said.