The Hindu : Not `India shining' but `India wondering': Sheila

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 14, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Not `India shining' but `India wondering': Sheila

By Sujay Mehdudia

NEW DELHI, MARCH. 13. Slamming the "India Shining'' campaign and accusing the Vajpayee Government of painting an "artificial feel good factor'', the Delhi Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, today said the campaign should be appropriately called "India Wondering''. The people living in urban and rural areas were confused as to what was shining as their lives have become miserable during the past five years of the NDA rule, she said.

Talking to The Hindu before leaving for Uttar Pradesh to campaign for the party in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls, the Chief Minister also ridiculed the Bharatiya Janata Party for raising the foreign origin issue of the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, time and again when she had been accepted as the leader of the country by the people.

Referring to the "India Shining'' campaign, the Chief Minister said it was nothing but a misleading propaganda to prop up the performance of the Central Government that had nothing to its credit but a large number of scams. The situation in the rural India has gone from bad to worse and the farmers were the worst hit by the policies of the Central Government. The common man had been burdened by the rise in the prices of essential commodities and corruption had touched a new high under the present dispensation at the Centre. "The people of the country are yet to figure out what was shining. Except for the faces of the BJP leaders, nothing else was shining and the country is in a `India Wondering' mode."

Terming the campaign against the foreign origin issue of the Congress president as mischievous and motivated, Ms. Dikshit said when people of the country had accepted her as leader of the country there was no question of raising such an issue. She had contested the parliamentary elections and become the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha. "She is the president of the Indian National Congress and is looked at by the masses as the future of the country. Then why this unnecessary campaign to malign a woman who is fighting the communal forces and has sacrificed so much to keep the secular forces intact?'' she asked. In fact, the Chief Minister said that Ms. Gandhi had not only contested and won from Amethi but had also won the Bellary Lok Sabha seat from Karnataka indicating the levels of her popularity.

Stating that the chargesheet released by the Congress against the NDA Government contained elaborate details of their misdeeds, Ms. Dikshit wondered where the promise for generating one crore jobs per year had gone. The youth of the country were disenchanted by the policies of the Vajpayee Government as they have been forced to sit at home without jobs. The disinvestment policy of the Central Government was flawed and even profit making units were being sold at throwaway prices or being offered to the multinationals without keeping the national interest in mind. Asserting that the people of the country were fed up with the NDA regime, the Chief Minister said she was confident that a Congress led coalition would rule at the Centre after the elections and the BJP would be taught a lesson by the nation. "Those who are following a communal agenda and are trying to influence the people through their rath yatras are sadly mistaken. The people of country are wise enough to realise their real designs and will expose them at an appropriate time,'' she remarked.

Asked about the prospects of the Congress party in the Capital, the Chief Minister said the BJP will not be able to repeat its 1999 feat of a complete sweep in the Capital and the Congress was poised for a comeback in Delhi. The Congress will emerge victorious in majority of the Lok Sabha seats in Delhi and the BJP and its leaders will struggle to win. She accused the Delhi BJP leaders of betraying the interests of Delhiites on a number of issues and cited the failure to grant Statehood as one of the major betrayals. At the same time, she said the failed propaganda of regularisation of unauthorised would also not fetch any votes for the saffron party as lakhs of people living in these colonies had realised that they had been taken for a ride by the BJP-led Central Government on the regularisation issue. It was only with an eye on the elections that regularisation was announced but without any concrete plan, putting the whole thing in a limbo. "The BJP leaders have to answer the people why the notification and simple guidelines for regularisation of these had not been issued till date. The Delhi Government has already made its stand known on the issue, as it would not accept any penal clause for regularisation of these colonies,'' she asserted.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

New Delhi