PMO and RSS will run Assam if BJP comes to power: Rahul

Asking voters in Assam to reject the Bharatiya Janata Party in the assembly polls, Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said that if it came to power, the state will be run from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh headquarters in Nagpur or the Prime Minister's Office.

He also warned the people that the BJP will only stoke violence in the state and end the atmosphere of peace ushered in by the Congress.

"We want everyone should think and should act for one's culture, language and that no one is suppressed in the country. What does the BJP want in Assam. First they will come and ask for your votes and then Assam will not be run from here, but will be run from Nagpur or the Prime Minister's Office," he said addressing a poll rally in Diphu in Karbi district.

Gandhi said that wherever the BJP has gone it has brought violence and has disturbed peace and cited the example of Haryana where within months of its coming to power there was violence between jats and non-jats.

"The truth is wherever the BJP goes, it tries to make people fight with each other. For example in Haryana, for 10 years there was peace and no violence or anger was there when the Congress was in power, but within months of the BJP coming to power there was violence and jats and non-jats are fighting with each other.

"You have seen what has happened in Gujarat. In Bihar, they tried to bring violence before polls and in Assam too they are trying to spread violence. They will end the peace that has come here after violence stopped. They don't think about you or Assam, they just want to impose one ideology and thought on the entire country, what the RSS people say," he said.

Gandhi also accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of making false promises and said that the people of Bihar have sent him packing in a "direct flight" from the state as he failed to fulfil any of the promises made to them during Lok Sabha polls.

While the BJP wanted one kind of thought to be imposed across the country it was the Congress that took everyone along and did not want anyone to be suppressed irrespective of one's religion, caste or area, he said.

"If one thought is imposed across the country, what will happen to your language, what will happen to your customs, your history. Because this country is not of anyone or one thought, but crores of people of different languages, history live here and this country belongs to all.

Attacking the prime minister and asking people to reject the BJP as they did in Bihar, Gandhi said, "the next time Modiji comes to Assam, ask him about the promises he made to you for bringing back black money, tackle price rise, funding of Assam and providing minimum support price for farmers, ask him as to which promise he has fulfilled.

"Because this question was posed to him by people of Bihar, as he made a lot of promises during Lok Sabha polls and when he returned during assembly polls a few months later, people of Bihar asked about these promises none of which were honoured and said he is 'deceiver' and decided to teach him a lesson. They sent him packing to Delhi in a direct flight. Now people of Assam also have to do the same."

Rahul accused Modi of not fulfilling his promises of bringing back black money, bringing down prices or addressing the plight of farmers and the poor and instead allowing people like Vijay Mallya and Lalit Modi, who possessed black money, to escape from the country.

"When I asked him in Parliament about his unfulfilled promises, he did not answer me," Gandhi said, asking people to pose these questions to Modi now when he comes to seek their votes.

Rahul, however, made a host of promises himself from providing 10 lakh jobs to youth, filling up all vacant government posts, giving jobs to 2 lakh teachers, providing rice at Rs 2 a kilo, cold storage facilities and agriculture banks to farmers and housing for all. 

Apart from Rs 1,000 crore package announced by Tarun Gogoi, he also promised to open a medical, engineering and nursing college in the area.

"We make promises and fulfil them. In the last 15 years, the Congress party and Tarun Gogoi has worked for you and will work faster in the next 5 years. We will not leave behind anyone, be of any religion, caste or region or place and our government will be of all religions, castes and places and will take everyone along," he said.

Image: Rahul Gandhi addresses a rally at Diphu in Assam.