The Hindu : National : BJP should undertake repentance yatra: Congress

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Saturday, Sep 11, 2004

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BJP should undertake repentance yatra: Congress

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 10. The Congress today charged the Bharatiya Janata Party with indulging in `cheap surrogate politics' and said the party should undertake a `praishchit [repentance] yatra' instead of embarking on a `tiranga [tricolour] yatra'.

Reacting to the BJP campaign from Hubli to Jalianwalah Bagh in Amritsar, the Congress said that instead of debating and discussing issues, the BJP has started the `tiranga yatra'. The party spokesperson, Abhishek Singhvi, said the BJP felt lost in the political wilderness. "It chooses not to learn from history," he said. The party also demanded that the BJP offer an apology for having disrupted the proceedings in Parliament especially as the Leader of the Opposition, L.K. Advani has now expressed regrets. The BJP should embark on a "praishchit yatra to repent for its actions" in the last several years, including the Ayodhya rath yatra.

Mr. Singhvi said while the BJP was using the tricolour for political purposes in Karnataka, it should also look at what was happening in the neighbouring States of Rajasthan and Maharashtra. He said in Rajasthan 13 cases of starvation deaths were reported in Jhalawar, the home constituency of the Chief Minister, Vasundhara Raje, while in Maharashtra a tussle for power in Thackeray family had begun in the Shiv Sena, an ally of the BJP.

Meanwhile, Raza Murad, actor, joined the Congress today. Mr. Murad, who was with the Samajwadi Party, said he was disenchanted with the SP he had joined three years ago following his inability to redress the problems of the people. The latest attack on lawyers and the killing of Ajit Singh, MLC, made him leave the party.

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