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Congress not to “play politics” over terror: PM

A woman Congress worker seeks blessings of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during an election rally in Jaipur on Monday. Photo: PTI

JAIPUR: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday reiterated the United Progressive Alliance Government’s resolve to fight terror and sought support of all political parties in facing the challenge posed by terrorists.

While promising that his party, the Congress, would not “play politics” over the issue of terrorism, he said all political parties should join hands to curb the menace. “Now terrorism is a very serious issue for the nation. The Centre will not spare any effort in fighting terror,” he asserted.

“This is the time we all should rise above the considerations of religion, caste and region to join together in the fight against terror,” Dr. Singh said addressing a gathering of intellectuals and party workers here in which Congress candidates from Jaipur city were introduced.

“We may have different religions, speak different languages and may have adopted varying traditions but we are all Indians first,” he said.

Earlier in the day Dr. Singh addressed a Congress rally in the district town of Hanumangarh, his first public address in the current Rajasthan Assembly election campaign.

Starting with obeisance to the officers and men of the security forces who sacrificed their lives countering the recent Mumbai terror attack and also offering condolences to the families who lost their members, Dr. Singh called for a united stand against terror.

While the text of both the Hanumangarh meeting and the Jaipur rally dealt with similar topics including the UPA Government’s brave attempts to contain the impact of the global meltdown on the country’s economy, Dr. Singh talked about the State Government killing innocent persons who had asked for irrigation water in Gharsana and Raola in police firing in his public rally.

Dr. Singh did not make any mention of the changes he had effected the previous day in the Union Cabinet but dealt in detail on the economic progress the country could make under the UPA.

He came down heavily on the BJP Government in the State for “misuse and under-utilisation of Central funds in various welfare programmes including NREGA and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan”.

In the difficult times of global recession and economic slowdown, the country needed a Government—like that of the Congress—which understood the economic issues in the proper way, he said, adding, “The Congress Government at the Centre handled the economic crisis in the nineties. Similarly this Government has been able to control the inflationary trends to a great extent,” he said. “There is an economic crisis the world over. India is not untouched by it. While it is recession in the West, India will have a 7 per cent growth this year as well,” said Dr. Singh, who has taken over the portfolio of Finance from Mr. Chidambaram.

He sounded optimistic about the growth prospects for the next year too. “Due to the strong measures taken by the Centre, the growth rate will not slow down in India as much as it would in other countries,” he asserted. The growth rate in the previous quarter had remained at 7.6 per cent, he noted.

The Prime Minister expressed the hope that the growth rate would remain around 7.5 per cent during 2008-09.

“In the past four years the country had an unprecedented 9 per cent growth. This period also found industry and trade growing at a faster pace creating new avenues for jobs. The stagnation in agriculture too has ended,” he pointed out.

“The BJP Government here did not cooperate with the Centre in Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the biggest thrust ever given in the country in education,” he said.“The funds are released from Delhi but not properly used and that is the biggest failure of the State Government,” he said.

“In fact you should use the Right to Information to check how the Rajasthan Government has utilised Central assistance,” Dr. Singh said.

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