'Strong undercurrent' in Congress's favour in Northeast: Jairam Ramesh

Congress claims strong Northeast support due to fear of BJP imposing uniformity and destroying diversity, focusing on preserving special provisions.

The Congress on Monday, April 15, 2024, claimed that there is a "strong undercurrent" of support for it in the Northeast because of the fear that the diversity of the region is going to be "destroyed" and uniformity imposed by the BJP.

Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh said that there is a fear in the Northeast that a government that can "bulldoze the abolition of Article 370 can very well bulldoze the abolition of Article 371 and its special provisions".

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Mr. Ramesh, who recently was on a campaign tour to northeastern states such as Nagaland, Assam and Mizoram, said there is a "strong undercurrent" of support and sympathy for the Congress because the issues in the Lok Sabha elections are quite different from those in the assembly elections.

"The issue in the Lok Sabha election is the preservation of the special provisions for the Northeast in our Constitution -- 371-A for Nagaland, 371-B for Assam, 371-C for Manipur, 371-F for Sikkim, 371-G form Mizoram, 371-H for Arunachal Pradesh. There is a fear that a government that can bulldoze the abolition of Article 370 can very well bullldoze the abolition of Article 371 and its special provisions," Mr. Ramesh said at a press briefing at the AICC headquarters here.

"So the most important issue in the Northeast is the preservation of the religious diversity, linguistic diversity, food diversity, and very important issue in the northeast in the last few days is the food...the freedom to eat what you want to eat," he said.

"The freedom to eat, freedom to dress, freedom to profess one's faith...basic freedoms are at stake. That is the real issue in the Northeast," he said.