The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Sinha makes light of Rahul Gandhi entry into politics

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 07, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Sinha makes light of Rahul Gandhi entry into politics

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, APRIL 6. BJP leader and Union Minister for Shipping, Shatrughan Sinha, has sought to make light of the entry of Rahul Gandhi into politics, saying that being young and popular alone will not help as people prefer experience.

Asked about Rahul Gandhi's entry into the electoral arena at a press conference here on Tuesday, he said that experience has its own place even though people might attend meetings of film stars and other popular personalities out of curiosity. One has to be respectable and acceptable as well, he added.

Mr.Sinha, who came here to address rallies, as part of the nationwide launch of the BJP's election campaign on the occasion of the party's foundation day, however, extended his best wishes to Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Vadra. He stressed that more and more young people with commitment should enter politics to cleanse it of the "rot" instead of keeping away from it.

He claimed that the political ambience in the country was in support of the BJP and its allies, which would return to power with a comfortable majority. He said that his prediction was based on "experience" and not on any survey. Seeking to compare the five-year rule of the Vajpayee Government with the erstwhile Congress regimes, he said the kind of development witnessed since 1999 was never seen earlier.

He said that the foreign exchange reserves, which were of the order of US$ 32 billion when Mr.Vajpayee took over the reigns, had touched the US$ 125 billion mark now. Similarly, there has been a 10.4 per cent growth in the GDP and inflation has been controlled. In other sectors like education, road connectivity and housing also remarkable progress had been achieved.

The "shine" witnessed in Andhra Pradesh under Telugu Desam regime was also not seen in the past.

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