The Hindu : Attack against Sonia Gandhi indecent, says Vasan

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Mar 08, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Attack against Sonia Gandhi indecent, says Vasan

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, MARCH 7. Taking strong objection to the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's election manifesto which described the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, as a ``foreigner'', the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president, G.K. Vasan, today said such a ``personal attack'' was ``indecent''.

``The nation knows the political culture of those who say that the nation's culture would be in peril if Sonia Gandhi became the Prime Minister,'' Mr. Vasan said, in a statement here.

Ms. Sonia Gandhi, despite having lost her mother-in-law and husband to terrorism and herself facing threats from fundamentalist forces, had entered public life to fight communal forces. The AIADMK general secretary, Ms. Jayalalithaa, should realise that she had no locus standi to make such criticism of the Congress chief.

Mr. Vasan noted that Annie Besant who led the Congress and kindled the fire of Independence movement with her call for self-rule was never seen as a foreigner, as also Sister Nivedita, the Irish disciple of Swami Vivekananda. The Bharatiya Janata Party was raking up the ``foreigner issue'' out of fear of losing power and Ms.Jayalalithaa was trying to add sheen to the campaign.

If the AIADMK and the BJP did not desist from making personal attacks and failed to focus on ideological issues, voters would summarily reject the two parties, he said.

PMK demands explanation

Meanwhile, the Pattali Makkal Katchi leader, S. Ramadoss, demanded an explanation from the AIADMK on why it had allied with the BJP now, when it pulled down the Vajpayee Government in 1999, on the ground that it had let down Tamil Nadu on the Cauvery issue.

Reacting to the AIADMK manifesto, which blamed the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the PMK for the persisting Cauvery crisis, Dr. Ramadoss, in a statement here, said, Ms. Jayalalithaa had stated in the Assembly last year that she had withdrawn support to the BJP-led government because it had done an injustice to Tamil Nadu by setting up a Cauvery River Water Authority.

Dr.Ramadoss said the Authority continued to exist. ``Is the AIADMK at least prepared to demand the scrapping of the Cauvery River Authority?'' he asked.

The people of Tamil Nadu would not be hoodwinked by the AIADMK's promise of providing a stable government at the Centre as they still remember how it pulled down the BJP-led government. They would defeat the opportunistic alliance between the two parties, he said.

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