The Hindu : BJP has taken Gujarat backward: Sonia

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jun 15, 2002

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National

BJP has taken Gujarat backward: Sonia

By Manas Dasgupta

LIMKHEDA (GUJARAT) June 14. The Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, kicked off her party's election campaign in Gujarat from the tribal-dominated Panchamahals district today accusing the BJP of taking the progressive State backward.

Addressing a largely-attended rally of the tribals, Ms. Gandhi said the BJP had shelved all developmental activities taking the once progressive State backward.

Dwelling on recurring drought, the most common problem of the tribal areas, Ms. Gandhi said the Congress was the only party which could take the State back on the path of progress and development. She promised to initiate drought-plugging programmes if her party was voted to power.

Strongly decrying both the Godhra train carnage and the post-Godhra violence in the State, which she said were under the "politically-motivated instigation'' of the ruling party for votes, Ms. Gandhi said that while the entire world took inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi's non-violent principles, the BJP took the inspiration from the killers of the Mahatma.

Giving an example of what was happening in the State during the past few months, Ms. Gandhi said it was clear that to the BJP humanism had no meaning and the party could go to any extent for the sake of power. "Humanism was being ruthlessly killed and communalism encouraged by the ruling party only for the sake of power.''

The Congress, she said, was the only party on which the people could repose full trust. "Unlike the BJP, the Congressmen do not talk and act differently. It is the only party on which you can repose your confidence and expect to get the result,'' she said amidst loud cheers from the large crowd who waited for hours braving the hot summer sun.

Reminding the people that Rajiv Gandhi had taken a personal interest in implementing drought-relief programmes, the Congress president regretted that after the BJP came to power the projects were shelved and the tribals were now back to square one.

Even the pro-poor and pro-backward class programmes initiated by Jawaharlal Nehru and carried through during the reigns of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi were given a goby.

``Why is it that not any section of the population is happy under the BJP dispensation?'' she asked. The industrial sector, farmers, tribals, backward classes, the common masses and even government employees were all unhappy with the BJP regime.

"I know your problems have multiplied ever since the BJP came to power in the State,'' she told the tribal audience, advising them to vote the Congress back to power for their own betterment.

``We want to share your grief and distribute happiness. This is the Congress resolve,'' she said. She said she was confident that the "politics of hatred and violence'' would be defeated by love and non-violence.

Before coming to Limkheda, Ms. Gandhi flew in from Delhi to Bhuj to hand over the keys of the houses rebuilt by the Rajasthan Government in the earthquake-hit Rajiv Nagar in Kutch district.

She was accompanied by the AICC general secretary, Kamal Nath, who is in-charge of Gujarat affairs, her political advisor, Ahmed Patel, and the pradesh Congress president, Amarsinh Chaudhary.

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