Setting the party’s tone for general election especially in the Northeast, the Bharatiya Janata Party led by its president Nitin Gadkari took up the issue of porous borders. The party chief said if voted to power his party would give topmost priority to secure the borders. Gadkari was speaking after flagging off the Shahid Sraddhanjali Yatra from Guwahati to Bumla in Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh.
Pointing to the issue of incomplete border fencing with Bangladesh, he said, “India is the only country in the world which has left its border unprotected and open.” He said securing the country’s borders would send out a clear message to its neighbours that India would not attack any neigbouring country. “We must also make it clear that we will not tolerate any violation of our borders by any neighbouring country,” Gadkari said.
He recalled that a party delegation led by him had visited China on invite and that he had told the Chinese leaders that his party wished to resolve the border dispute. “We told China that the two Asian neighbours together can give a new direction to development apart from changing future of the globe. Moreover, it is only through respecting each other’s territory and independent position that we can tell the world that there is no dispute between the two neighbours,” he said.
The Yatra is being organized by the BJP Yuva Morcha to pay tribute to the Indian soldiers and civilians who were killed in the 1962 India-China war. The yatra headed by BJYM national president Anurag Thakur has over 72 delegates from all over India and will end at Bumla on the China border on Sunday.
Gadkari took the opportunity to hit out at the Congress-led governments at the Centre and in Assam by accusing them of indulging in vote-bank politics and extending a red-carpet welcome to illegal migrants from Bangladesh.