BJP destroying Assam’s liberal identity by Hindutva politics: Cong

Guwahati, Jan 24 : The Congress on Sunday accused the BJP of trying to destroy the “liberal Assamese identity” through various designs and schemes, including the Citizenship Amendment Act and Hindutva politics.
Senior Congress leader Pradyut Bordoloi said that the RSS and its affiliates are trying to intensify their presence in the northeastern region and destroy the Assamese identity.
“Our identity would defeat them. Our Hindutva, our Hinduism is egalitarian, liberal and accommodative. We assimilated all. Now there is a threat perception,” Bordoloi told the media here in wake of Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s criticism of Congress for forging electoral alliance with the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), a Muslim-based party.
“Our Hindutva was moulded by great Assamese social reformer Srimanta Sankardev,” he said.
Both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the opposition Congress ahead of the April-May assembly election are focussing on the ideology and thoughts of Sankardev, a 15th-16th century Assamese polymath, a saint-scholar, poet, playwright, social-religious reformer.
Saying Shah represents the “imperialistic design” of the BJP, Bordoloi alleged that the BJP is trying to rename schools and colleges in the state after RSS leaders such as Deen Dayal Upadhyay instead of Assamese freedom fighters.