The Hindu : Cong. has two manifestos for Gujarat, says BJP

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Dec 01, 2002

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Cong. has two manifestos for Gujarat, says BJP

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI NOV. 30. On the eve of the release of its own manifesto for the December 12 Gujarat Assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) kept up its attack on the Congress, accusing its traditional rival of indulging in "political dishonesty" by publishing two different manifestos in English and Gujarati.

At the regular briefing at the BJP headquarters here today, the party spokesperson, Vijay Kumar Malhotra, claimed that the two separate manifestos also had different contents. "It appears that one manifesto is for pseudo-secularists, the other is for the Gujarati people." He said two entirely different manifestos in two different languages were unheard of in the country's political history over the last 50 years.

While the English version talked of setting up special courts for trying the Ahmedabad communal riot cases and promises a "White Paper" on Godhra, the document in Gujarati did not make any such mention, Mr. Malhotra claimed.

He accused the Congress of projecting the Assembly polls as being fought on the plank of "communalism versus secularism." The Election Commission should take suo motu notice of the Congress manifesto, which spoke of a "White Paper" on Godhra and the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.

The Congress was being supported by the Muslim League and the Imam of Delhi's Jama Masjid, Syed Ahmed Bukhari, was addressing congregations in its support in mosques after Friday prayers. "This is gross misuse of religious places. The Election Commission should stop this," Mr. Malhotra said.

Referring to the situation in the Congress-ruled States, he said that starvation deaths in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra had destroyed a number of homes and brought untold misery upon a large chunk of the population.

On the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi's U.K. visit and her address at the Oxford Islamic Centre, Mr. Malhotra sought to keep the controversy alive by demanding an apology from the Congress for having sent its president to deliver lecture at a "controversial" centre which had been linked to the Bin Laden family.

"The Leader of Opposition does not need permission of the Government to visit any country," he said.

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