The 2 MPs of Barak Valley are slaves of Modi, Sonowal & Himanta, alleges Sushmita Dev

Oct. 12: The Cachar Paper Mill is the lone heavy industry in Assam which was started during the time of Congress government. But after winning the elections in 2014, the Modi government has done a series of injustice towards the two paper mills at Nagaon and Panchgram. It is due to the faulty policies of the present government that the two paper mills are now lying in defunct condition. The paper produced by these two mills were of best quality in the country. It’s indeed surprising that these two mills were ruined by the BJP government. This was alleged by former Silchar MP and President of All India Mahila Congress, Sushmita Dev on Monday while addressing a gathering of paper mill employees in presence of a host of Congress leaders of the state.

Addressing the mill employees, Sushmita Dev said that those days when the mill was run with acute shortage of bamboo and coal, the Congress government never thought to shut it down. She said, “Do you remember the public meeting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Kalinagar in 2016? He proudly proclaimed that once the BJP government comes to power in Assam, then the paper mills would be revived. The role of two BJP MPs from Barak Valley is indeed very disgusting. They have utterly failed to pressurize their own government in reviving the mills. You two MPs of Barak Valley are the slaves of Modi. Both of you are the slaves of Sonowal. You are also the slaves of Himanta Biswa Sarma.”

She then went on to say that listening to the promise of the Prime Minister, people from Barak Valley voted for BJP in 2016. Time has now come for another assembly election, but unfortunately all promises were broken and the mills were not revived. “None can keep any deep rooted conspiracy hidden for a long time. We have seen in social media, Pijush Hazarika, the right hand of Himanta Biswa Sarma. Well, I don’t know whether he is right hand or right leg of Himanta Biswa. Anyhow, Pijush Hazarika posted a picture in social media where he was seen with an entrepreneur from Gujarat, who wished to buy the paper mill. I would like to ask- Is revival of paper mills same as that of selling them?”

She then said that in 2018, just before the Madhya Pradesh elections, PM Modi went there and along with Shivraj Chauhan opened a public sector unit there. She then asked, “Is Sarbananda Sonowal not capable of demanding revival of the paper mills from PM Modi? Very often in media reports, CM Sonowal could be seen with folded hands stating that he has met the PM.and discussed for revival of the mills. He is nothing but a big failure. We strongly criticise such a Chief Minister. We will have no gains with such a Chief Minister.”

It was then that she appealed to the crowd to direct their grievance inside the ballot box. She said, “It is easy to organise protest movement. But what I want is that today all of you take a pledge that we will teach Modi government & Sonowal government a befitting lesson for closing the two paper mills. Today Ripun Bora, Prodyut Bordoloi, Debabrata Saikia, Rokibul Hussain have come here amidst you because this time Congress will form the govt in Assam and all of them will become ministers. It is then that we will revive the Cachar & Nagaon Paper Mills.”

Sushmita Dev also criticised the central and state government for price rise and scarcity of jobs for the youths. The handling of COVID-19 by Assam government was also vehemently criticised by the former MP. She termed the present ruling dispensation as a “fraud government who speaks lies.” She concluded her speech by throwing a challenge to CM Sonowal. She said, “Is there any BJP leader here who can say what his party has given or done for the people of Barak Valley? Namami Barak was organised with much fanfare, but that’s all. No development work was done for our people. The only thing made strong by the BJP in the last 4 years in Barak Valley is syndicate-raj. All BJP leaders are now a part of this syndicate.”

Sushmita Dev was speaking during the protest demonstration at Panchgram in support of revival of the two HPC Paper Mills in Assam. The demonstration was attended by APCC President Ripun Bora, Congress Legislative Party Leader Debabrata Saikia, MP Prodyut Bordoloi, Deputy Leader of Assam Assembly Rokibul Hussain among others.