The Hindu : National : Vajpayee criticises Manmohan for his remarks on terrorism

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 11, 2007
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National

National

Vajpayee criticises Manmohan for his remarks on terrorism

Staff Correspondent

Campaigns for BJP candidate Navjot Singh Sidhu in Amritsar

— Photo: PTI

STRESSING A POINT: The former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, BJP candidate for Amritsar Navjot Singh Sidhu (centre), and Akali Dal leader Sukkhdev Singh Dhindsa (left) at a rally in Amritsar on Saturday.

CHANDIGARH: Claiming that winds of change were blowing across Punjab, the former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, on Saturday said the next Akali-BJP Government would transform the fate of the State, whose prosperity had suffered during the Congress rule.

Addressing a rally in support of BJP candidate for the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat, Navjot Singh Sidhu, he criticised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's remarks warning the people about the return of terrorism to the State. He said if the Prime Minister was so concerned, he should have focussed special attention on Assam and Jammu and Kashmir, where innocent people fell to terrorists' bullets everyday. According to observers, the gathering at Mr. Vajpayee's meeting was manifold compared to that of the Prime Minister a few days ago when the weather was much more conducive. The public response in the downtown areas of the city had the alliance leaders smiling.

Mr. Vajpayee said the sanman (dignity) of Punjab could only be restored by voting the Akali-BJP combine to power. The Congress was in the habit of reviving the spectre of terrorism and violence in the State. Accompanied by senior Akali leader Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, BJP general secretary, Arun Jaitley and Chief Whip Vijay Kumar Malhotra, the former Prime Minister said the Punjabis knew how to deal with terrorism. The Congress should avoid vitiating the atmosphere of communal harmony.

The Congress Governments both at the Centre and in the State would have done better had they concentrated on the plight of farmers who were committing suicide due to the prevailing crisis in the agrarian sector, Mr. Vajpayee said. When the BJP attempted to take up the matter of farmers' suicides in the State, the Centre said the numbers were not enough to grant adequate compensation for the victims' families.

The present United Progressive Alliance Government at the Centre would go down as a regime that had deliberately discriminated against the Punjab farmers. It had frittered away all gains from the Green and White revolutions. Criticising the Centre for the unprecedented rise in the prices of essential commodities, he said they were kept under control during the previous NDA Government. Checking the price rise would be one of the main priorities if the Akali-BJP was voted to power.

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