GUWAHATI, Oct 14: The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) on Wednesday came out with a strong stand against the BJP-led Government at the Centre with party chief and Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta lashing out at it, saying the BJP too has gone the Congress way in neglecting Assam.Addressing a rally organised here to mark the fourteenth foundation day of the regional party, Mahanta said the BJP too had become another Congress party, as it had taken a discriminatory stance as far as solving the problems of Assam was concerned.``The state remained under floods for nearly four months. The Prime Minister came. Then came the Union Home Minister and the Union Agriculture Minister. They were also followed by a Central team of officials to assess the flood damage. While all of them made tall promises of extending help to the state to tide over the flood situation, not a single paisa has been released so far,'' Mahanta said.He also lashed out at the BJP-led Government for not reimbursing the huge amount of moneythat the Assam Government has spent in combating insurgency, and said that while the state had spent Rs 662 crore since April, 1990 till March 31, 1998, the Centre has so far reimbursed only Rs 132 crore so far.``The BJP should keep off from unnecessarily complaining that the AGP-led Government has failed to bring the situation under control,'' Mahanta said.Mahanta claimed that his party had been able to make its voice heard in Delhi despite a small representation in Parliament.He also went on to say that coalition politics was here to stay in the country, and that it was a better mode of governance as smaller parties representing the sentiments of smaller nationalities could also participate in the decision-making process at the Centre.``Our party has been able to get a Rs 6100 crore special economic package from the Centre two years ago because the AGP was a partner of the United Front,'' Mahanta said.On the issue of bringing the militant groups to the table of discussions, Mahanta once againpushed the ball to the Centre's court saying it was the Centre which should take the initiative as it had gone in the case of the Naga insurgent groups. ``The discussion process should be immediately started, be it in India or outside. Time is running out,'' the AGP president said.The other senior leaders of the AGP, including senior vice-presidents Biraj Kumar Sarma and Durgadas Boro, and general secretaries Nagen Sarma and Pradip Hazarika too echoed their leader's views and criticised the BJP-led Government at the Centre and regretted that the BJP should have gone the Congress way in neglecting Assam.
