The Hindu : Cong. will not let 'Gujarat' repeat

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Dec 28, 2002

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National

Cong. will not let 'Gujarat' repeat

By Our Staff Reporter

KOCHI DEC. 27. The Congress is determined not to let the Narendra Modi brand of high-voltage anti-Muslim election campaign cross Gujarat's borders and spill over to other States, the AICC general secretary, Ambica Soni, has said.

Referring to the BJP president, Venkaiah Naidu's remark that the ``Gujarat experiment'' would be replicated in others States, Ms. Soni said that her party had resolved to stop such hate campaign. It was easy to incite people's ``latent emotions'' of anger and hatred for sometime, but such passions would not last long, she said speaking at the leadership camp organised by the KPCC here.

Ms. Soni reminded the BJP that there were no Narendra Modis in other States — 14 of them had Congress Chief Ministers and one (Jammu and Kashmir) a Congress Deputy Chief Minister — to "incite State-sponsored terrorism.''

Mr. Modi was riding the VHP tiger and soon the latter would demand its pound of flesh in accordance with the ``hidden promises'' made to it. The BJP had won more number of seats in central and north Gujarat where riots had been engineered than in the earthquake-hit Kutch region, Ms. Soni said.

The BJP victory in Gujarat was an ``aberration,'' she said and urged the Congress activists to see that it did not repeat itself elsewhere. "Expose them... if they tell a lie, catch them by the throat and show that it is a lie.''

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