Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has said Assam has become unsafe for women under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led alliance government.
Launching her two-day campaign in the poll-bound State on Monday, she also said Assam’s strength was her cultural diversity. This was in reference to the campaign of the State Congress to save “Assamese culture” from “Nagpuria (Hindutva ideology emanating from Nagpur)” culture.
Ms. Vadra interacted with party office-bearers and diverse groups of people besides interacting with tea garden women workers and self-help group members in the northeastern part of the State.
She launched an all-out attack on the Sarbananda Sonowal government for the rising rate of crimes against women in Assam.
“Assam has the highest rate of crime against women and the BJP government has been turning a blind eye to this issue. The upcoming elections are very important for the women of the State. You have the power to vote, use it responsibly,” she said in her address to tea garden workers, mostly women.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau, Assam reported the highest rate of crimes against women at 177.8 per lakh population in 2019.
Appealing to the youth to save Assam, Ms. Vadra said the State’s diverse culture was its strength and the Congress “stands with the people of Assam in the fight to save the State”.
The Congress leader also asked the people of Assam to teach the BJP a lesson for “pushing the common man into abject misery through continuous hike in the prices of fuel and essential commodities”.
State Congress leader Bobbeeta Sharma said Ms. Vadra would be addressing public meetings in north-central Assam’s Tezpur town in the concluding stretch of her campaign.
