The Jan Chetna Yatra is a campaign to tell people that India is a not a land of corruption, Bharatiya Janata Party leader L.K. Advani has said.
Mr. Advani, who reached Pandalam leading a 38-day ‘rath yatra' was addressing a public meeting on Saturday afternoon. According to him, the yatra has nothing to do with himself or BJP, but it is for the country as a whole. “The government and certain people may be corrupt, but, the country can never be termed corrupt. ‘We do not give bribe to anyone and we do not take bribe from anyone' is the slogan raised throughout the yatra,” he said.
The BJP leader said that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government's failure to deliver had led to people losing faith in the political system. “The poor are becoming poorer. Food has become costlier. Corruption is hurting the country badly,” he said.
Mr. Advani said India had not changed much even after 64 years of independence. There was still poverty, starvation, backwardness, and illiteracy in the country. “Though we got ‘swaraj', we grossly lack ‘suraj' or good governance,” he added.
Mr. Advani said he was confident about the country's future. Black money worth Rs.25 lakh crore had been stashed away in foreign banks and if the BJP c came to power, this money would be brought back to India and utilised for national development, he said.
People are fed up with corruption and the yatra was aimed at preparing them to strive for national development.
V. Muraleedharan, BJP State president, translated Mr. Advani's speech to Malayalam. V.N. Unni, BJP district president, presided.
Ananthkumar, Ravisankar Prasad, BJP national general secretaries; Muralidhar Rao, Shyam Jauja and V.Satish, party national secretaries; accompanied Mr. Advani.
