Prime Minister Narendra Modi's policy of development of North East has led to its emergence as the growth engine of the country with all militant groups joining the mainstream,Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Saturday.
Earlier, agitations and violence, separatists and different armed groups were seen but now they are all part of the mainstream, Shah said at a programme to launch four projects at the Kumar Bhaskar Varma Kshetra at Amingaon here.
“All those youths have now joined hands for Assam's development and are now competing with the global youths through start-ups and other projects to make the state the growth engine of the nation”, he said. Shah came down heavily on former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for not solving the issue of Rs 8000 crore outstanding dues of oil royalty to the state.
Singh represented Assam for 18 years but could not solve this issue, but “Modiji cleared the outstanding dues even before the BJP came to power in the state and also ensured that in future the amount will keep increasing and reach to the people of the region,” he said. Modi had said in 2013 that unless the North East develops, the nation cannot progress and in 2014 after coming to power he translated his promise into reality, he said.
“Assam's culture is not of its alone but is the ornament of the entire nations and it was Assam's saint Mahapurush Sankardeva who spent his entire life on the path of Bhakti,enriching it with literary works, traditions, culture, relgious thoughts which received recognition in the rest of the country”, Shah said.
He said this on launch of the project for the development and beautification of Batadrava Than,birthplace of the saint. Sankardeva and Madhavdeva had unified the entire state and now the team of Sarbananda Sonowal and Himanta Biswa Sarma have unified the people of the state by upholding and promoting the state's heritage and tradition, he said.
“The Congress did not think of developing his birthplace but the BJP believes that unless the language and culture are developed, the state cannot progress”, he said. There are more than one lakh 'Namghaars' (Vaishnavite prayer and community halls) in the state spreading the message Sankardeva and the state government's decision to give Rs 2.5 lakh to eight thousand namghars is a unique step towards unification of the people, he said.