The Hindu : Karnataka News : Voters should teach Congress a lesson, says Sushma Swaraj

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka

Voters should teach Congress a lesson, says Sushma Swaraj

Staff Reporter

Tactics of Congress remind one of Emergency days, says BJP leader

SMILING CAMPAIGNERS: BJP leader Sushma Swaraj and the party candidate in the Chamarajpet Assembly byelection, Pramila Nesargi, at a public meeting in the constituency in Bangalore on Monday. — Photo: K. Bhagya Prakash

BANGALORE: The Deputy Leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Rajya Sabha, Sushma Swaraj, on Monday alleged that the "tendency" of the Congress to be authoritarian is evident again, and it reminds one of the Emergency.

Addressing a well-attended election meeting of the party in Chamarajpet Assembly constituency, she appealed to voters to issue a warning to both the United Progressive Alliance Government at the Centre and the coalition government in the State by defeating its candidates.

Ms. Swaraj said the Congress President, Sonia Gandhi, made the former Chief Minister S.M. Krishna Maharashtra Governor after his election from Chamarajpet. In Maharashtra, the then Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde was removed and appointed Governor of Andhra Pradesh. This, she said, was a strategy of Indira Gandhi to prevent any influential Congress leader from establish himself in the party. Ms. Sonia Gandhi is also following the same tactics effectively, she said.

Recalling the recent "toppling" of the Goa Government and moves against the BJP and the Janata Dal (U) in Jharkhand and Bihar, she said they are indications of a phenomenon against which the people should protest. In Goa, the BJP Government was dismissed within minutes of the former Chief Minister Manohar Parikkar proving his majority in the Assembly. These developments are undemocratic and dangerous for the country and the people, she added.

Likening Ms. Sonia Gandhi to the director of a drama company, Ms. Swaraj said anyone could see that she had a major role in the developments. People, upset by the undemocratic means through which Indira Gandhi toppled democratically elected governments, removed her from power immediately after the Emergency was lifted. It is time for the people of Chamarajpet and Shimoga (where a byelection to the Lok Sabha has been necessitated by S. Bangarappa's resignation) to warn the UPA at the Centre and the coalition government in the State that such tactics will not work, she added.

Ms. Swaraj, who unsuccessfully contested from the Bellary Lok Sabha constituency against Ms. Gandhi in 1999, spoke a few lines in Kannada to applause from the gathering. She asked whether Chamarajpet, which is a constituency of educated people, wants to elect Pramila Nesargi, High Court advocate, or another candidate of the ruling coalition. "If you vote for Ms. Nesargi, you will be supporting a person who will correct the Government and bring peace and progress; if you fail, you will be supporting evil forces," she said.

The BJP leader from Tamil Nadu Tirunavukkarasu said that while the left parties are criticising the UPA Government which they are supporting, the Janata Dal (S) is donning the role of the Opposition within the coalition in Karnataka. He held the Chief Minister, N. Dharam Singh, responsible for the developments related to the formation of the Arkavathy Layout by the Bangalore Development Authority and the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor project. He spoke against the former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda for criticising the coalition government although his party is a part of it.

The BJP General Secretary, H.N. Ananth Kumar, and `Mukhyamantri' Chandru, MLC, spoke.

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