Date:05/12/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/12/05/stories/2007120561391400.htm

National

Modi regime ‘dual-faced’: Sonia

Manas Dasgupta

Says BJP government cannot ensure development of people

— Photo: PTI/ Atul Yadav

Election mode: Congress supporters at a public rally in Bhuj, on Tuesday.

GANDHIDHAM (Kutch district): Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is heading a government with “a dual face and dual characters,” Congress president Sonia Gandhi said on Tuesday. She likened communalism to terrorism, which were “but two sides of the same coin.”

Without naming the BJP, she said “they” only talk about terrorism. But the Congress was the only party which had faced terrorism bravely and even sacrificed its leaders for the cause of the nation.

Addressing public meetings in the Kandla port town of Gandhidham and the tribal-dominated Idar in Sabarkantha district of north Gujarat, Ms. Gandhi said the government which was giving “protection” to anti-social elements could not ensure progress and development of the people.

It was her second round of election meetings in the state within three days. She addressed two meetings in the tribal-dominated Jamanpada in south Gujarat and Jasdan in Rajkot district in the Saurashtra region on December 1.

Reminding the people of the Congress party’s contributions in rebuilding Kutch after the disastrous earthquake in January 2001, she accused the BJP government of discrimination even in the distribution of relief materials.

The UPA chairperson refuted Mr. Modi’s allegations of discrimination by the Centre against Gujarat on political grounds and asked the people to question where all the money given by the Centre for various projects was going.