BJP will enact laws to tackle 'love and land jihad' in Assam: Amit Shah

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday said the BJP will enact laws to tackle the "menace of love and land jihad" in Assam if it is voted to power.

Addressing an election rally, Shah said appropriate laws and policies will be put in place to strengthen Assamese culture and civilisation.

The manifesto also promised it will enforce a deradicalisation policy to identify and quash organisations and individuals fanning communal exclusion and separatism.

"The Congress manifesto is merely a tool for election campaign but the BJP manifesto is meant for implementation," he asserted.

He also accused Congress leader Rahul Gandhi of describing AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal as representative of Assam's identity. "He (Gandhi) does not understand Assam and its identity," he said.

Assam's identity is linked to Vaishnav saints Srimanta Sankardeva and Madhavdeva, brave Ahom general Lachit Barphukan who saved the state from Mughal invasion and Bharat Ratnas Bhupen Hazarika and Gopinath Bordoloi, he said.

"We will not allow Ajmal to become a symbol of Assam's identity notwithstanding Congress's efforts to do so. Can the Congress and AIUDF save the state from illegal infiltration?" he said.

"Rahul baba should remember that it was their chief minister Tarun Gogoi who was once dismissive of the AIUDF chief and had asked 'Who is Ajmal?' And now it is the Congress which has joined hands with Ajmal to gather votes," he added.

Calling Gandhi a "tourist", Shah said the Congress leader was seen in the state only for 2-3 days during the elections and then vanishes for the next five years.

There are only three images before the people of Assam--that of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's development and service to people, of Rahul Gandhi's tourism and Ajmal's agenda of infiltration. The people of Assam have to decide what they want, Modiji's double engine for development or Congress-AIUDF's double infiltration, he said.