The BJP ferried thousands of people to Changsari in Guwahati on Saturday where Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a public rally.
Although there is nothing wrong in ferrying people to a rally, particularly when the party is in power and its Prime Minister is addressing the rally, different sections in Assam have questioned the act of tying BJP’s flags to the school buses belonging to different schools, which were used to ferry the people.
Prime Minister Modi laid the foundation stones of different projects in Assam on Saturday including the Bhumi Pujan of the All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) at Changsari near Guwahati.
“It is a government programme. So, the government can use its power to fill the ground with people. There is no harm in requisition of vehicles too. However, they should not have used BJP flags in the buses — this sends a wrong message of saffronisation of schools,” said a citizen on condition of anonymity on Saturday.
Hundreds of school buses belonging to Delhi Public School (DPS), Modern English School, etc. were seen moving in and out of the ground at Changsari since Saturday morning ferrying people for the rally.
“Schools should be kept away from party politics. Schools are the factory of making citizens — at least the politicians often claim this. So, how can they use the party flags in school buses? This is wrong and will send a wrong message to the society,” said another citizen of the area.
Prime Minister Modi-led Central government often talks of ‘swachata’ (transparency). However, his own party seems to have forgotten the rule of transparency as they engaged them in undeclared competition, the completion of love and hate for and against the party in the backdrop of the ongoing agitation against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016.