The Hindu : Time to send BJP packing, says Congress

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 26, 2004

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Time to send BJP packing, says Congress

By Our Staff Correspondent

BHOPAL, FEB. 25. Senior Congress leaders, who addressed a huge party rally here today, targeted the NDA Government at the Centre and took a dig at the "India Shining'' campaign as well as the ruling BJP's "feel good factor''.

Congress veteran, Arjun Singh, trying to boost the morale of Congressman in the State, said that the Congress workers had played a significant role in sending the veteran BJP leader, Sunderlal Patwa, back home after the BJP Government led by him had been dismissed in the wake of the post-Ayodhya riots in 1992. "Once more, Congressmen have the opportunity to deal a similar blow to the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who keeps wearing a mask to hide what lies underneath," Mr. Singh added. Citing an example, he said that on a visit to Gujarat after that State had been rocked by communal violence, the Prime Minister had said his head hangs in shame. But within days of this statement, he was instrumental in getting Narendra Modi elected as the Gujarat Chief Minister.

Mr. Vajpayee had once said that he had "zero tolerance'' for corruption, Mr. Singh said and added it was paradoxical that despite scams worth thousands of crores no one has been punished on account of corruption under the present regime at the Centre. He even went on to allege that Mr. Vajpayee was the only Prime Minister who had "facilitated" corruption to this extent.

Mr. Singh drew attention towards the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani and said that he has never missed any opportunity to proclaim a war against terrorism but even after the attack on Parliament and "series of attacks on State Assemblies and temples from Kashmir to Kanyakumari'', there was very little in terms of action against terrorists.

Addressing the rally, the former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Digvijay Singh, reminded the Congress workers of the role they had played during the period 1977-80 and 1990-92 when the Congress party was out of power in the State. He said that again it is time for them to come out on the roads to fight for the cause of the poor labourers and farmers. The former Chief Minister said that the Congress is not a weak party and said that the party workers should not lose heart. He said that our strength lies in the cumulative strength of the party workers and the leadership of the Nehru-Gandhi family. He went on to add "we are fortunate to have Ms. Sonia Gandhi as our leader''.

Mr. Singh further said "though we had tried to fulfil our promises for ten years but it is possible that I and my Cabinet colleagues might have committed few mistakes''. Expressing regrets for the mistakes committed while in power, Mr. Singh said that he has already accepted full responsibility for Congress party's defeat in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly election.

While asserting that he was ready to join Congress workers in their struggle for the common man's cause, he also talked of the rising prices of essential commodties like kerosene, sugar, diesel, petrol, edible oil and cement and said one wonders if the adverse trend was contributing to the "feel good'' factor. He even went to the extent of observing that perhaps it was only his younger brother, Laxman Singh who had been bitten by the "feel good'' bug which eventually led him to join the BJP. The Congress MP from Guna, Jyotiraditya Scindia, who also addressed the rally, questioned the logic behind the "feel good'' factor saying let us go to the farmers and youth to ask them whether or not they were really feeling good about anything.

The Madhya Pradesh Congress president, Subhash Yadav, said that efforts are on in Madhya Pradesh to crush the cooperative movement. He threatened that the Congress workers would come out on the streets to oppose any move to trample the cooperative movement in the State.

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