Shah in Shillong: Protesters eat beef

Shillong: Angry protesters openly ate beef as BJP national president Amit Shah and general secretary Ram Madhav arrived here on Wednesday. The protest, staged by members of a pressure group, was in opposition to the recent attacks on churches and curbs on religious freedom.
The protesters, all members of Thma U Rangli Juki (TUR), also appealed to religious leaders, civil society groups and regional parties of Meghalaya to boycott Shah, saying that BJP was responsible for anti-tribal and anti-farmer policies besides attacks on freedom of culture, religion and faith.
Though the Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC), a militant outfit, had called a bandh to protest against the alleged atrocities on minorities, it had no impact in the state capital where security was tight.
Shah, who is touring the eight states of the northeast, addressed party workers here at the state convention hall and encouraged them to ‘work hard and expose the misdeeds of the Congress-led coalition government in Meghalaya and lay the foundation for forming a BJP government in the next state elections’.
He also urged party workers in the state to compile a list of corruption charges against the Congress-led Meghalaya United Alliance-II government in the form of a booklet and distribute it among people.
Shah told party workers, “If the successive Congress governments in the state had honestly utilized the funds given to them by the Centre, then there would not have been any poor people in Meghalaya.”
Shah informed party workers that there are about 20,000 BJP workers in the state who need to work hard and follow all the centrally sponsored projects given to the state government for highlighting corrupt practices, if any.
Shah said the dream of bringing the NE region on a par with other developed regions of the nation can be fulfilled with BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the helm of affairs in Delhi. “But for this to happen, the NE states will have to make BJP strong,” he added.
Speaking about the BJP’s commitment for developing the NE region, Shah said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s NDA government has sanctioned Rs 100 crore to set up a sports’ university in Manipur and also gave funds for a 127-MW power project in Meghalaya.
Informing party workers of NE-specific projects undertaken by the BJP government, Shah said the Union government has initiated construction of hostels for the welfare of NE students in Bangalore, Delhi University and JNU University. He added that to keep the culture and art of the NE region alive in Delhi, the BJP government also organized a festival in the national capital recently.