 Online edition of India's National Newspaper Wednesday, Apr 15, 2009 ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version |
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SHARING THE STAGE: AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi and J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah at a rally at Vijaypur, near Jammu, on Tuesday. SRINAGAR: AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday made a scathing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate, L.K. Advani, questioning the BJP record in fighting terrorism. Addressing an election rally at Vijaypur near Jammu, Mr. Gandhi asked Mr. Advani to clarify why he said he was not aware of the exchange of three terrorists for air passengers hijacked to Kandahar, Afghanistan. Mr. Advani, he pointed out, was the Home Minister then. “Mr. Advani talked about Prime Minister Manmohan Singh being weak in fighting terror but what has he to say about [his role in] the exchange of terrorists?” If Mr. Advani was not in the know of things, it “means the then Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee had no confidence in him or he [Mr. Advani] is lying.” Mr. Gandhi said Dr. Singh had done a great job, supporting the J & K government in upgrading the anti-terror mechanism and “in our rule, the situation in the State has improved to a considerable extent.” Mr. Gandhi said he would work with Chief Minister Omar Abdullah (of the National Conference) to bring peace, prosperity and progress to the State and “will ensure that the unemployment issue is addressed.” Mr. Abdullah lauded Dr. Singh as a visionary and said the Prime Minister’s bold initiatives for opening LoC routes to trade and passenger traffic and his special economic package for the development of the State were path-breaking and highly people-friendly. The Congress chose to hold the rally on the last day of campaigning at Vijaypur, a bastion of the National Conference. The NC, as a partner in the coalition government, has not fielded any candidate in Jammu, Udhampur and Ladakh. “Progress in all fields”Sarabjit Pandher reports from Bathinda: In his campaign in Punjab, Mr. Gandhi, ridiculing the BJP leadership for calling Dr. Singh a weak Prime Minister, asserted that for the first time Pakistan had accepted that its soil was used for terrorist activity against India. On the other hand, during the NDA regime, terrorists attacked and killed people inside the Parliament complex. Also, the then government succumbed to pressure from hijackers and a minister went all the way to Kandahar to release dreaded terrorists. The Congress general secretary was addressing a public rally, close to Takht Damdama Sahib at Talwandi Sabo in Bathinda, after launching the party’s campaign on the occasion of Baisakhi as well as the birth anniversary of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. Describing Dr. Singh as “sher-e-Punjab” (lion of Punjab), Mr. Gandhi said the Prime Minister was the “shaan” (pride) of Sikhs, Punjab as well as India, and under his leadership India registered unprecedented progress in diverse fields. Mr. Gandhi alleged that the benefits of the UPA government’s progressive initiatives did not reach the deserving people in Punjab as the funds provided by the Centre were lost either due to corruption or misutilisation.
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