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Cong. misled Dalits for 50 years, says Modi

By Our Special Correspondent

DHANDHUKA (GUJARAT) Sept. 14 . The Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, today launched a scathing attack on the Congress, saying it always considered the Dalits as its `vote-bank' but only ``misled them for the last 50 years''.

Addressing a meeting at the Dalit pilgrim centre in Jhanjharka village from where he launched the second leg of his `gaurav rath yatra' this morning, he alleged that it was because of the Congress that the Hindus and Muslims, who fought together in 1857, fell apart leading to the division of the country.

``The BJP or even the Jan Sangh did not exist at that time. Then who was responsible for breeding communalism?'' He claimed that the BJP had initiated various welfare programmes for the weaker sections but ``without hurting the interests of other sections''.

Mr. Modi refrained from making any observation on the minorities. He said his Government believed only in ``human bondage'' and did not discriminate against people on the basis of religion or caste. ``It does not matter whether one goes to temple, gurdwara or mosque, or if one is an atheist, the BJP does not discriminate anyone.'' Unlike in the first leg, Mr. Modi did not name the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, even once and his attack was confined to the party's State unit president, Shankarsinh Waghela, whom he called an `anti-national' for describing Kargil as a ``BJP-sponsored'' war.

Though the `yatra' continued to attract a sizeable crowd at various towns, the audience was less enthusiastic. In Jhanjharka, Mr. Modi failed to impress the crowd as the locals blamed the wrong policies of the BJP for joblessness. Most of the villagers are hat weavers and they said many powerlooms had to be closed down because of the withdrawal of power subsidy by the BJP Government. ``Whatever he may say, we will not support the BJP this time,'' a leader of the weavers community said. The situation, however, was different at Dhandhuka where the people weighed Mr. Modi against coins which would be used for women's education in the State.

Mr. Modi shifted to his favourite ``Godhra and post-Godhra'' rhetoric as soon as he entered the Hindu-dominated areas, alleging that the Congress and other Opposition parties and the national and international media were ``conspiring'' to ``insult the 5 crore people'' of Gujarat. Be it the Surat plague, the alleged attack on Christians in Dangs, the earthquake rehabilitation or the communal riots, the Congress exaggerated things to defame Gujarat, he charged. ``But the Congress cannot come back to power in the State after painting its people black.''

The second leg of the `yatra' was flagged off by a host of Dalit leaders from the State and the Centre, including the BJP national secretary and former Delhi mayor, Anita Arya.Others present were the Union Ministers, Kashiram Rana, Satyanarayan Jatia and Ashok Pradhan, and the BJP backward class cell chief, Ramapati Shastri..

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