National - Elections 2004   

NDA failed to fulfil promises: Sonia

By Our Staff Correspondent

CHIKKODI (BELGAUM DISTRICT), APRIL 20. The Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, today called upon voters to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and "save the nation."

Urging the voters to compare the achievements of the Congress Government in the State with that of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance Government, Ms. Gandhi, addressing a public meeting here, said the latter had failed to fulfil promises such as providing corruption-free governance and one-crore jobs every year. The NDA Government had facilitated retrenchment and denied employment to hundreds of youths through its privatisation policy. None could match the BJP and its allies as far as corruption was concerned, she alleged.

Criticising the Prime Minister, Atal Bihar Vajpayee, for "changing his stance frequently," she said: "We do not know what he speaks and what he does." Two days ago, he criticised coalition governments and appealed to the voters to give a majority to the BJP. He "also praised those who had destroyed the tenets of politics," she said and added that this was not the case with the Congress.

Ms. Gandhi alleged that the NDA Government's policies had not benefited farmers, Dalits, backward classes, women, minorities, and the poor. "Yet, everything appears to be fine for Mr. Vajpayee. He does not see any deficiency in governance."

She said: "I am satisfied that our Governments in various States, including Karnataka, have left no stone unturned to live up to the expectations of the people." She praised the Karnataka Government for "successfully implementing" schemes such as the Stree Shakti, the Ambedkar Housing scheme, the Nirmal Gram Yojana, the Samagra Grameen Rozgar Yojana and the Indira Awas Yojana. It had taken steps to ease the drinking water shortage and to develop dryland and had achieved tremendous progress in the agricultural and industrial sectors.

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