The Hindu : 'River grid was Rajiv's idea'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 09, 2002

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National

'River grid was Rajiv's idea'

By Manas Dasgupta

MEHSANA (GUJARAT) Dec. 8. The Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, today criticised the Prime Minister, A.B. Vajpayee, for trying to claim credit for the schemes initiated by the Congress. Addressing an election rally here, she referred to Mr. Vajpayee's recent speech about the proposed "garland river'' project connecting all the major rivers in the country and said the scheme was actually initiated by her late husband Rajiv Gandhi, when he was the Prime Minister. "Mr. Vajpayee should not have forgotten that he can launch the project now because Mr. Gandhi had carried out the necessary detailed technical survey in the country for it.'' She said the Congress welcomed the project and "I have said this in Parliament also,'' but it was wrong for Mr. Vajpayee to claim credit for it.

Ms. Gandhi said that unnerved by the "writing on the wall" that it would be trounced in the Gujarat elections, the BJP had started blaming the Congress for everything. "The people in the State do not have faith in a party that is preaching violence and sowing the seeds of disharmony between the communities,'' she said.

A party which believed in the "politics of terror'' could not remove the fear from the minds of the people nor could it ensure the progress and prosperity of the State. "The BJP leaders are only bothered about protecting their own chairs. How can they remove poverty,'' she asked.

She also charged the BJP-led Government at the Centre and the State Government with indulging in corrupt practices. "Tehelka, UTI, coffin scandal and in your State, the cooperative bank scam — one after another, scams of the BJP Governments are coming out.

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