The Hindu : Selection of nominees in final stages: Sharma

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 03, 2004

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Selection of nominees in final stages: Sharma

By Our Special Correspondent

CHANDIGARH, MARCH 2. The senior Congress leader and AICC spokesperson, Anand Sharma, today charged that the Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman, Najma Heptullah, had broken her ideological and emotional links with the Congress when she received an award from the RSS chief some months ago.

Talking to mediapersons here today, he said that the Congress had not only respected Ms.Heptullah but sent her to the Rajya Sabha for more than four terms. She had become the Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha on the recommendations of the party President, Sonia Gandhi. "She has betrayed the ideology of Gandhi and Nehru by embracing the ideology of Godse and Savarkar,'' he remarked.

While lashing out at the BJP for keeping its doors open like a railway platform and taking in people of all sorts including D.P.Yadav and defending them, he said that the former Congress MP, Lakshman Singh, who had recently defected to the BJP, had no political relevance other than being the younger brother of the former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Digvijay Singh.

While asserting that the exercise for selection of Congress candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls was in the final stages, he said that the names of nominees for five States had already been announced. He further said that each aspirant had been asked to submit an affidavit regarding his assets, liabilities and criminal background, if any.

Hitting out at the BJP and the Vajpayee-led NDA regime, he charged that the BJP had got carried away into a self-delusion mode by the so-called feel good hype. Rather, the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, had failed to fulfil the promises made in the last elections to provide good governance and security. The track record was one of dismal governance, denial of equality to citizens, deliberate denial of justice because of the political leanings of the BJP and what stood out was the "compromise of liberal democracy.'' The real face of the BJP had been exposed in Gujarat and it was shameful that a report brought out by a NGO media watchdog in Britain had mentioned that funds collected for relief work after the Gujarat earthquake had been siphoned off to fund communal riots. Similarly, a report of the US Foreign Relations Committee had raised pointed queries about faith in liberal values, equality before law and religious tolerance. He demanded that Mr.Vajpayee, being a statesman, should reply to these charges.

Mr.Sharma charged that the BJP and Mr.Vajpayee had fine- tuned the art of double speak and multiple speak. On one hand the BJP talked of seeking votes on the development plank, on the other hand the Prime Minister had revealed his true colours by launching the election campaign from Ayodhya. He also sharply flayed the BJP for misusing the State Exchequer to fund its election campaign. "The BJP-NDA will be remembered for non-deliverance of promises, abject failure on all fronts and betrayal of the farmers, poor and the youth. They are behaving so arrogantly as if the people have already given them a huge mandate''.

He further asserted that the BJP's claim of stability and successful coalition building was untrue and far-fetched. While describing the NDA as one of `political opportunism', he reiterated that the Congress was open to talks with secular democratic parties for pre-electoral understanding and coalitions. He commented that the NDA was a "desperate'' alliance of political parties with diametrically opposite views and ideas whose rule was marked by "scams and scandals. ''

He further asserted that the NDA regime had been completely exposed before the people for its various acts of omission and commission and it was certainly headed towards "defeat.''

While referring to the political situation in Uttar Pradesh, he remarked that things were not yet clear. However, he spelt the need for coordination amongst secular forces while maintaining that the Congress was not "absent'' from that State.

Interestingly, the Congress leader pooh-poohed the "dissidence'' within the Punjab unit of the party and asserted that the Lok Sabha polls would be contested unitedly.

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