TRIVANDRUM, 6 May 2004 — Congress President Sonia Gandhi yesterday blasted Prime Minister saying the Vajpayee has shaken the country’s very foundation by injecting communal hatred into the minds of people and ‘defrauding public money’.
Addressing election rallies in Kerala, she was piqued at the National Democratic Front (NDA) government taking credit for the county’s progress in information technology, connectivity and other areas initiated by her late husband Rajiv Gandhi. “They always opposed Rajiv Gandhi’s initiatives in key areas of development. Every single policy that made progress possible was opposed in Parliament. Rajiv’s dream of a strong India by empowering youth and the weaker sections. Now they are spending millions of rupees to take credit for that (through India Shining campaign),” she said.
Gandhi said the religious minorities were specific targets of the Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies during the five-year rule. “Their institutions are being destroyed. Textbooks are rewritten and given a dangerous communal twist. They are injecting communal hatred into the hearts of the young,” she said appealing to the voters to back Congress.
“Corruption has become rampant and not a single day was passed without a BJP-sponsored scam. Even the defense sector was not spared. There were Tehelka, coffin and many other scams. All were making money at the cost of national security. And there was the Rs 250-billion UTI scam that cost the ordinary investors and pensioners,” she said. As part of the one-day tour in Kerala, Gandhi arrived in here in a special aircraft yesterday morning and flew to Cochin and later to Calicut. While Gandhi carefully avoided any reference to the Left parties, her potential allies that are fighting her candidates in all the 20 constituencies in Kerala.
“If you elect a Congress-led national government, we will provide full support and resources to Kerala to grow. We will provide safe and secure future for all sections and your vote will make the real difference,” she said in Cochin. People turned out in large numbers at the public rallies she addressed despite heavy rains throughout the day. She had to cancel her program in Thiruvalla due to bad weather.
