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BJP has divided society: Sonia

By Our Special Correspondent

JAIPUR SEPT. 16. The Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, said today that the BJP's "raj dharma'' had only sown the "seeds of discord" in society and "spread terror and fear."

Addressing a public rally in the western Rajasthan town of Nagaur, Ms. Gandhi said that when the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, reminded them of "raj dharma'' in the wake of the Gujarat violence, the BJP leaders resented it. Now the Supreme Court too had said the same thing. "We had pointed out then itself that justice cannot be ensured in the absence of rule of law,'' she said. On the second day of her mass contact programme in the State, Ms. Gandhi continued with to attack the BJP while at the same time explained the policies and traditions of the Congress from the time of the freedom movement to the post-Independent modern India.

Travelling by road in a motorcade along with the Chief Minister, Ashok Gehlot, the AICC general secretary, Ambika Soni, the PCC president, Girija Vyas, the PWD Minister, Harendra Mirdha, local MP and MLAs, Ms. Gandhi made some unscheduled forays into interior villages.

In Bikaner, she visited the Deshnok temple, the abode of Goddess Karni Mata and on way to Nagaur, she interacted with villagers, shared their buttermilk and listened to kalbelia (snake charmers) settlers at Gogelav village.

Ms. Gandhi said the country had made great progress under successive Congress Governments in the past. Those in power at the Centre at present had no right to raise an accusing finger at the Congress as the National Democratic Alliance Government was proving an "all-round failure" which brought in "unprecedented corruption, unemployment and a sense of fear among the people."

Ms. Gandhi referred to the problem of growing unemployment, terming it the root cause of other ills among the youth. Taking up the long pending demand of the people of the district for a share of the waters of the Indira Gandhi Canal, Ms. Gandhi directed Mr. Gehlot to get a survey done on its feasibility.

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