Congress lost Northeast due to neglect: Union minister Sarbananda Sonowal in Lok Sabha

Union minister Sarbananda Sonowal on February 2 accused previous Congress governments of corruption and poor governance, calling on the opposition party to set aside criticism and support the ruling alliance’s goal of making India a developed nation by 2047.

Moving the motion in the Lok Sabha to thank President Droupadi Murmu for her address to the joint sitting of Parliament, the Ports, Shipping and Waterways minister said the Congress should “give up opposition and hatred” and work with Prime Minister Narendra Modi towards a self-reliant Viksit Bharat by 2047.

Sonowal, the MP from Dibrugarh in Assam, claimed the Congress had been rejected by voters in the Northeast due to alleged neglect of the region and had little chance of electoral revival there. He also invoked India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, alleging that he “said goodbye to the Northeast in 1962” during the Chinese aggression.

“Previous Congress governments were known for their rampant corruption and scandals like the 2G spectrum, coal block allocations, CWG among others. Now you have seen a fair, transparent and corruption-free government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” Sonowal said.

Calling the President’s address “remarkable”, the minister noted that Murmu is the first head of state from the Adivasi community, the second woman and the youngest to hold the office. He said the address laid out a broad framework of the government’s welfare schemes, describing them as inclusive and aimed at social justice and balanced growth. “It was not just a simple address to the nation but a powerful message of a resurgent India,” he added.

Sonowal alleged that policy paralysis and corruption under the UPA had lowered national confidence, while the period since 2014 had seen wide-ranging socio-economic changes. He said that over the past 11 years India had become the world’s fourth-largest economy, attributing this to “political will and visionary leadership”.

On the Northeast, he reiterated that the Congress had failed to deliver development during its long tenure. “The people of the Northeast have never got anything without coming to the street, without launching any agitation. For every development project in the Northeast, we had to resort to agitation and protests,” he said, adding that Modi had emerged as the most popular leader in the region due to sustained focus on its growth.

Addressing Congress members directly, Sonowal said, “The people of the Northeast don’t consider you as our own. You have looted the Northeast; you have deprived people of their legitimate demands. You will be rejected in every election in the Northeast. There is no point in trying.”