By Bhupen Goswami

Guwahati : Three-time former Chief Minister of Assam, Tarun Gogoi, on today, tore into the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the alleged corruptions in the National Register of Citizens (NRC) process, and the implementation of the CAB. senior Congress leader Tarun Gogoi has called Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s statement, over implementing the National Registrar of Citizens (NRC) all across India, a “joke”. “The Union government or the home minister is completely failed in preparing a correct and an error-free NRC for a smaller state like Assam, where the population is only three crores. How can the people of India expect that he will be able to prepare NRC for entire India, wherein the population is almost 130 crore?” “The home minister took credit during the publication of the NRC draft, and according to him, the 40 lakh people who were excluded were termed as ‘foreigners’ and declared that they will be deported. Now, it is surprising that he has taken a U-turn and even today has not rejected the present NRC,” Gogoi said. The former chief minister said that the present NRC in Assam is the “baby” of Amit Shah and the Modi-government. “For preparing the NRC draft for Assam, the government spent about Rs 1,600 crore and more than 50,000 employees were working day and night. So, for a big country like India, how much money will the government spend? How many government employees will be engaged?” Tarun Gogoi asked.Gogoi said that the Government is not solving any of the basic issues of the people — such as mid-day meals, road infrastructure, industrialization, etc. Gogoi further added that the introduction of the NRC and CAB are the Government’s diversionary tactics to divert attention from the issues that matter. The former CM also lamented that the GDP has plunged to 4.5%, whereas the economy was robust under the Congress regime. Recently, at the 2nd Inside Northeast Youth Conclave, Tarun Gogoi had blamed the poor economic condition in the country for the resurgence of insurgent activities in the State.Discussing the issue of insurgency in the Northeast and the increasing joinings into the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), Gogoi had said, “Number one is economic development, even for sports and peace. Political right follows. Then, we need to get mass support.” Development must come first and peace will follow, Gogoi stated. “Infrastructure, particularly, road and bridges, must be built, and more jobs as well — people’s attention will be diverted and insurgency will be checked”, Gogoi had advised.