Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed regret and offered an explanation today in the wake of angry reactions in the Northeast to the "North East immigrants" gaffe by the BJP in its vision document.
The BJP had termed the people of the region living in Delhi "immigrants" in its vision document for the Delhi elections. As the party went into damage control, Modi had to chip in and assuage angry voices from the region.
"There is an attempt to deceive people about what was written. The party said the use of the word was wrong and unacceptable," Modi said at an election campaign rally in Ambedkar Nagar here this afternoon.
The Prime Minister claimed that his government had done more development in the Northeast since he took over than previous governments did in the past 60 years.
Directly targeting the people from the region and addressing them as "brothers and sisters from Northeast", Modi said soon after becoming Prime Minister he had visited Assam, Tripura, Nagaland and Mizoram.
Earlier in the day, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had also explained to the media that the BJP regretted the “inadvertent mistake”. Reading out the rephrased chapter on ‘People from the North East to be protected’, he said, “It now says “Special cells in police stations and special helplines to be set up for protection of the North East people living in Delhi. To safeguard the students of NE origin, special guardianship will be arranged with local families for them.”
Despite the apologies, massive protests erupted across the region on Wednesday. Various organisations and groups burned effigies of senior BJP leaders and demanded an unconditional apology from the saffron party.
[With Inputs from: Telegraph, Indian Express and Seven Sisters Project]
The BJP had termed the people of the region living in Delhi "immigrants" in its vision document for the Delhi elections. As the party went into damage control, Modi had to chip in and assuage angry voices from the region.
"There is an attempt to deceive people about what was written. The party said the use of the word was wrong and unacceptable," Modi said at an election campaign rally in Ambedkar Nagar here this afternoon.
The Prime Minister claimed that his government had done more development in the Northeast since he took over than previous governments did in the past 60 years.
Directly targeting the people from the region and addressing them as "brothers and sisters from Northeast", Modi said soon after becoming Prime Minister he had visited Assam, Tripura, Nagaland and Mizoram.
Earlier in the day, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had also explained to the media that the BJP regretted the “inadvertent mistake”. Reading out the rephrased chapter on ‘People from the North East to be protected’, he said, “It now says “Special cells in police stations and special helplines to be set up for protection of the North East people living in Delhi. To safeguard the students of NE origin, special guardianship will be arranged with local families for them.”
Despite the apologies, massive protests erupted across the region on Wednesday. Various organisations and groups burned effigies of senior BJP leaders and demanded an unconditional apology from the saffron party.
[With Inputs from: Telegraph, Indian Express and Seven Sisters Project]
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