NEW DELHI: India’s ruling Congress party unveiled its election manifesto yesterday, with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh setting the tone for the campaign by labeling his main rival a communal opportunist.
Singh dismissed Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani as a figure who whipped up social tension and had a poor record of tackling extremism.
The verbal offensive came after Advani had repeatedly described Singh as a weak prime minister who was only in power because of the patronage of Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi.
Singh outlined Advani’s long-running role in the destruction of Babri Mosque, and pointed out he was home minister when the Indian Parliament was attacked in 2001.
“All I can discover in Mr. Advani is the prominent role he played in the demolition of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya ... He was the home minister who presided over the massacre of innocents in Gujarat. This country must reflect if he is fit to hold the post of prime minister,” he said.
Singh, making his first major public appearance since undergoing heart surgery in January, said the BJP believed in stoking Hindu-Muslim tensions. “The BJP is out to divide people on the basis of communal lines,” he said, pointing to a campaign speech by BJP candidate Varun Gandhi which was criticized by election authorities as “highly derogatory” toward Muslims. “Candidates with such mindset cannot carry India forward,” Singh added.
Advani hit back at the unusually personal attack, telling supporters that “we shouldn’t call this the government of Manmohan Singh, it is actually the government of Sonia Gandhi. I have never seen a weaker prime minister.”
Singh and Sonia Gandhi launched the Congress manifesto ahead of the April 16 to May 13 polls which are being fought over issues ranging from rising unemployment to national security.
The manifesto said a Congress government would pursue private-public partnerships to bring back India’s blistering economic growth, rather than what it called the “blind privatization” policies of the BJP.
— With input from agencies
