Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi said here on Friday that Mr Narendra Modi is the chief minister of rich and big industrialists whereas he was struggling for the upliftment of poor and downtrodden.
Pointing out that the challenge before the nation is not the development of rich people, Mr Gogoi told reporters, “The real challenge is to develop the backward areas and poor people of the country.” Referring to the human development index of Assam being better than that of Gujarat, Mr Gogoi said, “Mr Modi is the chief minister of the rich and influential class which manages wide publicity for his achievements, but in our case there is hardly any space in the media to take note of our work.”
Delighted by AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh’s remarks equating the development of Assam with Gujarat, Mr Gogoi said, “Gujarat was a developed state and so further development of the state was not a challenge for the government of the day.” He said the majority of industrialists have their industries in Gujarat.
Earlier, inaugurating health department schemes in the absence of Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Mr Gogoi also justified bail for NDFB chief Ranjan Daimary. Ignoring the protest of bomb blast victims’ families, Mr Gogoi said, “We intend to engage all the insurgent groups in peace talks to ensure that tragic incidents like the serial bomb blasts of October 2008 are not repeated in the state.”
He said his government has applied the same yardstick it had applied in giving bail to Ulfa chairman Arbinda Rajkhowa. He also reiterated that Assam is not the only state where attempts have been made to resolve conflicts through talks.