Gangtok, Oct 7: Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who is on a whirlwind tour of the north-eastern region, on Friday said that for the last 75 years of the country’s independence, the entire Northeast was only considered a tourism hub and no real development had taken place there before Prime Minister Narendra Modi was elected to lead the country.

“In 75 years of Independence, before Narendra Modi became the PM, the northeast was considered only a tourist destination, famous for its places of interest for tourists. But after he became the Prime Minister, the real development of the northeast began,” Shah said. He was speaking at the “Cooperative Dairy Conclave-2022” of the Eastern & North-eastern regions in Gangtok, which he inaugurated earlier in the day.

Shah emphasised that he was not making a political claim but was making a plain statement of fact. Referring to his visit to the northeast in 2014, he said he had been regularly visiting Sikkim, Assam and other north-eastern regions and had seen the development taking place for himself and could vouch that development in the region had begun only after the BJP assumed power at the Centre.

The Home Minister is on a three-day visit to Sikkim, where he inaugurated the dairy-owners meet to provide an impetus to the dairy industry. He is also scheduled to attend a slew of programmes in Assam.