BJP cannot give security to every community of this Country : Dev

Shillong,Jan 11: The All India Mahila Congress president Sushmita Dev today told the BJP that its money cannot buy the love of the people of Meghalaya.

She was reacting to the recent announcement of Rs 70 crore scheme for development and repairing religious and spiritual circuits in the state made by the Union Tourism Minister K.J. Alphons.

Citing that Meghalaya is very famous for rock concerts, Dev said, “There is a very famous song “money can’t buy love”. This is the answer to their (BJP) expenditure on churches because giving money to the churches is a one time thing but security of every community in this country is a long term thing that the BJP cannot give.”

Alleging that the BJP-led NDA government have not given such schemes in other states, she said, “Whether it is Scheduled Caste or Schedule Tribe, everywhere they have treated them as second class citizens which is the fact and I give an example in my speech that in Madhya Pradesh they say please have a hindu puja inside the church then what is the use of the money given to repair a church.”

On the other hand, MPCC working president and MP from Shillong Vincent H Pala alleged that the BJP is trying to misuse the government’s money for its own benefit ahead of the Assembly polls.

“The BJP is trying to use the government money for the party’s benefit in the elections but I don’t think that the BJP will be smarter than the Christians here. I don’t think Alphons is smarter than the priest and the other leaders of the Christians here. So I think that will not have any impact,” he said.

He said that union tourism minister might have given the scheme to churches and temples but the money belongs to the central government and it is giving to the people of Meghalaya.

“What they (BJP) want is to use the government money trying to buy the people but that will not affect. But how can with only 80 crores he (Alphons) will get the entire Meghalaya, I think that is not possible,” Pala added.