Congress was more sincere in deporting foreigners: Assam LoP Debabrata Saikia on PM Modi's statement

Guwahati (Assam) [India], December 21 (ANI): Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in Assam Assembly Debabrata Saikia on Sunday criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for "spreading false narratives and false propaganda" to influence the people of the state by claiming that Congress is "trying to end identity of Assam."
Saikia's statement comes a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Guwahati to inaugurate the new terminal building at the Lokapriya Gopinath Bardoloi International Airport here, where he claimed that he is fixing "decades old mistakes" of the Congress party.
"The mistakes that Congress kept making for decades, Modi is correcting them one by one," he said. PM Modi alleged that Congress committed "a sin of trying to destroy the identity of Assam".
"Before Independence, when Muslim League and the British were preparing the ground for the partition of India, there was also a plan to make Assam a part undivided Bengal or East Pakistan. Congress was moving towards becoming part of this plan," he alleged.
Replying to the allegations, Saikia said that BJP is lying to the people and it was the Congress which detected and deported foreigners.
"The official records indicate that Congress was more sincere in detecting and deporting foreigners. In all the years, we see that from 2004 to 2013, we 5 digit or 4 digit expulsion of foreigners and detection from Assam. In 2006 during UPA regime it was more than 13,000 who were detected. In 2007 it was more than 12,000, same in 2008. In 20013, it was more than 5,000," he said.
"But then the NDA came, saying they would protect our 'Jati, Mati, and Beti', but statistics don't show that, in 2014, they expelled around 900, in 2015 they detected around 470, in 2016 it was 308, in 2017 it was less than 100," he added.
Claiming that the BJP can't do any real action, he said, "This shows how the BJP tries to influence the minds of the people with false narratives and false propaganda. Still, in action, they don't do anything, and that is very unfortunate."
PM Modi is on a two day visit to Assam. On Saturday he inaugurated the New Terminal Building of Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport.
Today, PM Modi is in Assam's Namrup, where he said that the BJP is resolving long-pending problems created by the Congress in Assam, alleging years of neglect of Namrup's fertilizer units.
Highlighting BJP-led reforms, he said urea production increased from 225 lakh metric tonnes in 2014 to around 306 lakh metric tonnes nationwide.
Addressing a public gathering in Namrup, PM Modi said that Congress governments failed to modernise old factories, leading to the shutdown of several industrial units in the region. (ANI)