Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Monday attacked BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and called him a ‘dedicated worker of RSS whose ideology of hatred led to the killing of Mahatma Gandhi’.
“Modi is a dedicated worker of RSS whose ideology of hatred led to the killing of Mahatma Gandhi. I am a dedicated volunteer of Gandhiji,” Gogoi said this on twitter on Monday. Gogoi also twitted that Assam has received attention more than 10 times in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s tenure in comparison to the NDA Government. “During Vajpayee’s rule, Assam got a raw deal,” said Gogoi on twitter.
Gogoi’s reaction came two days after Modi addressed a massive rally in Assam’s capital town Guwahati and attacked the Congress, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi for wrong policies and not doing anything for Assam. Gogoi also addressed a Press conference on Monday and termed the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate as an ‘irresponsible’ leader who delivered wrong statements about Assam.
Gogoi also gave statistics during the Press conference and said, “The Gross State Domestic Products of Assam is 13 per cent in 2012-13, while it is only 8.52 per cent in Gujarat. My spending on development is also much higher than Gujarat,” he said, adding that during the period of the NDA Government at the Centre Assam got Rs 13,280.86 crore. However, it went up to Rs 57,832.7 crore during the 13th Finance Commission during the present UPA Government.
“Assam’s overall debt stood at Rs 29,200 crore compared to Rs 1,76,500 crore of Gujarat. As on March 2013, the per capita loan burden of my State is Rs 9,368, while it is Rs 29,228 in Modi’s State,” Gogoi said, adding that Modi is only shedding crocodile tears. “He (Modi) remembered Assam only because it is election time,” said Gogoi.
“On Government spending, Assam spent 25.08 per cent of total budget in education, sports, art and culture, while Gujarat had spent only 17.13 per for these,” he said while drawing a parallel between the Government spending in Assam and Gujarat. “In rural development and medical and public health, I am spending 3.13 per cent and 4.80 per cent respectively of my total budget, while Modi is spending 2.8 per cent and 4.6 per cent respectively,” he said.
“Unlike Gujarat, Assam has been affected by problems like insurgency, illegal migrants issue, flood and economic backwardness. The economy of Assam was in bad shape when my Government took over. However, the fiscal condition of Gujarat had always remained comfortable since Independence. So compared to Gujarat, we have done much better in last few years as the economy and the law and problems have improved considerably,” he said. He also said that Assam’s position in India is 3rd compared to 13th of Gujarat in overall health index.