The Hindu : BJYM rally against Congress stand on Statehood

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 04, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

BJYM rally against Congress stand on Statehood

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, FEB. 3. The Delhi Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha today staged a demonstration at the Delhi Secretariat to protest "against the deceptive policy of the Congress concerning full Statehood for Delhi". Led by Pradesh Yuva Morcha president, Satish Upadhayay, the protestors marched from Feroze Shah Kotla grounds to the Delhi Secretariat raising slogans against the Congress.

Addressing the crowd, the BJP Delhi unit president, Harsh Vardhan, alleged that the Delhi Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, had made many contradictory statements about full Statehood for Delhi which had led to confusion. "The Congress was to blame for the delay as they were in power earlier and are still today and are confused,'' he added.

Accusing the Congress of indulging in "roadside politics'', Dr. Vardhan stated that despite the efforts of the BJP to push the Statehood Bill ahead in Parliament, it could not be passed as the Standing Committee of Parliament headed by Pranab Mukerjee had delayed its submission to the Government, leaving very little time to look into the matter. The Congress was only making it an issue now that the Government had recommended dissolution of Parliament and trying to divert attention of the people by bringing up this issue, as it had failed to deliver on development issues related to electricity, water, roads and slum development, he charged.

Mr. Upadhyay alleged that development in the city had stagnated. He further accused the Congress of not being in favour of Statehood and claimed that Ms. Dikshit was trying to mislead citizens by raising this demand. "It is political immaturity on the part of the Congress to raise this demand only for the sake of political gain just before the elections,'' he remarked.

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