Congress president Sonia Gandhi has accused the Communist Party of India (Marxist) of decimating those opposing its ideology in north Kerala.
Addressing an election campaign at the Corporation stadium here on Wednesday, she said that “politics of violence is the hallmark of the CPI(M). And north Malabar has become its workshop to implement its vigorous policy of destruction and killing. Hundreds of innocent women and children have become victims of the bomb culture being practiced by the CPI(M) in this region,” she said.
Ms. Gandhi said the people of the State had suffered under the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government's misrule in the last five years. Educational institutions and the judiciary came under sustained attacks. The CPI(M) politicised the bureaucracy and the Police Department.
Referring to the death of a tribal youth and Youth Congress worker, Edavana Babu, at Kelakam in Kannur district last month, she alleged that CPI(M) activists had beaten him to death. During Parliament sessions in New Delhi, the CPI(M) spoke of democracy in glowing terms. “But is killing people who do not belong to your ideology democracy? Is oppressing people and attacking them democracy?”
Asserting that the Congress did not make false promises, the Congress chief said the Centre had implemented several programmes in the last seven years. Today, Left parties were claiming that they had been instrumental in bring legislation such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, Jawahar Rozgar Yojana and the Right to Information Act. “These legislations were mentioned in our election manifesto in 2004 and we implemented them. The reservation for women in local bodies was increased from 33 per cent to 50 per cent,” Ms. Gandhi said.
She said the Centre had implemented specific schemes for minorities and created a new Ministry for Minorities Affairs for the first time in post-Independence India. Based on the Sachar committee report, a 15-point programme for the welfare and empowerment of minorities is being implemented and it was personally previewed by the Prime Minister. The UPA government had passed the Right to Education Act providing free and compulsory education to children between 6 and 14 years. And, soon it would fulfil another promise made in the manifesto by passing the food security Bill, she said.
Unlike other parties' governments, the UPA's gave friendly support to all States irrespective of party affiliation. The Centre had given huge money to Kerala. “The people of the State should ask the LDF government where was that money. Was the money used for the welfare for the people?”
Ms. Gandhi exhorted the people to vote for UDF candidates for the much-needed change in the State. Subsequently, the Centre and the State could work together to ensure welfare schemes for the poor and the disadvantaged. “Your vote will be a vote for restoring the image of Kerala, for creating peace and prosperity,” she said.
She draped all UDF candidates in the district with poonada. Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala presided over the function. Union Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahamed, Union Minister of State for Home Mullappally Ramachandran, and M.K. Raghavan and M.I. Shanavas, MPs were present.
