The Hindu : Front Page : BJP shamelessly dragging Lord Ram’s name: Sonia

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Sunday, Nov 04, 2007
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BJP shamelessly dragging Lord Ram’s name: Sonia

Manas Dasgupta

Kick-starting poll campaign, she asks women to rise and unite to vote out BJP

— Photo: PTI/ Atul Yadav

Congress President Sonia Gandhi being welcomed on her arrival to attend the ‘Mahila Samman Sammelan’ in Gujarat on Saturday.

ANAND (GUJARAT): Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday castigated the Bharatiya Janata Party for “shamelessly” dragging the name of Lord Ram into politics, and said the United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre was studying all aspects of the Sethusamudram project to ensure that its implementation did not hurt the sentiments of any religion.

Ms. Gandhi called the BJP a “chameleon party” that kept changing its colour to suit its political requirements and criticised it for mixing religion with politics. “No one can trust such a government,” she said addressing a largely-attended women’s rally organised, to kick-start the Congress campaign for the December Gujarat Assembly elections, at Waghasi on the outskirts of this town.

In an apparent bid to neutralise Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s harping on the “Ram Sethu” controversy to arouse “Hindutva” sentiments, Ms. Gandhi said the BJP had no hesitation in dragging Lord Ram into politics to seek votes in his name, and it was indulging in misleading propaganda against the Congress in the name of the Sethusamudram project.

She said the BJP was deliberately hiding the fact that the project was actually cleared and its implementation started when the party-led National Democratic Alliance government was in power at the Centre.

The Congress viewed all religions with equal respect, she said. “Our sole concern are you the people whose welfare, progress and development is our only aim and goal,” she said and called upon the people to participate in the elections as a “matter of duty” and remove the “opportunistic party” from power.

Communal riots

In her 15-minute address, Ms. Gandhi made an oblique reference to the 2002 communal riots in the State and the recent Tehelka expose on the carnage, and said the enterprising people of Gujarat, who brought name and fame to the State and the country all over the world, were today feeling ashamed of the “misdeeds” of the present rulers.

“We are all mothers, sisters and daughters and we all hang our heads in shame for the ill-treatment of women during the riots in the State. No one can imagine the way women were violated. How can such barbaric acts by the present day rulers in the State be condoned or tolerated in a civic society,” she asked and called upon women to “rise and unite” to vote out the BJP and get rid of “misgovernance.”

Enumerating the steps being taken by the UPA government for women, children and other sections in health care and other spheres, Ms. Gandhi ridiculed Mr. Modi’s claim of development, and said the Centre was sending huge funds to the State.

The people of the State knew better whether the funds were being properly utilised for their welfare or not.

“Fear, exploitation”

Claiming that the people were living in a state of “fear and exploitation” under the present regime, she said the Congress wanted to uproot the government that “evoked fear and hatred” and was “characterised by corruption,” and to build a new social order free of corruption and exploitation. Ms. Gandhi said it was the Congress which for the first time got a woman elected President of the country, enacted the domestic violence Act and took other legal measures for women’s protection and progress.

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