Defence Minister and Congress Working Committee member A.K. Antony has said that the major agenda before the United Democratic Front (UDF) in the State is all-round development, not annihilation of political rivals.
He was addressing a series of public meetings soliciting support for the UDF candidates in the five Assembly constituencies in the district on Friday.
Mr. Antony said the UDF accords top priority to bringing in all-round development; ensuring communal amity, law and order; and evolving schemes for poverty alleviation as the winds of change have begun to blow in the country, courtesy “pro-people” welfare measures adopted by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre.
The focus of any election campaign should be on initiating development and not on making statements to annihilate political rivals, he said, unleashing a scathing attack on Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan who during electioneering had warned of initiating legal steps against leaders of the UDF for their alleged involvement in “corruption and other scams.”
Uplift of the poor
“Let law take its own course. Political parties should give thrust to uplift of the people, especially the poor,” he said, addressing a public meeting at the hilly hamlet of Odayamchal in the Kanhangad Assembly constituency this afternoon.
Lauding the welfare measures initiated at the behest of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and All India Congress Committee president Sonia Gandhi, Mr. Antony said the fruits of such schemes had had an impact on the life of the people in the entire country. “If the starvation deaths once reported from Wayanad district and other parts of the Kerala have come to an end, the credit should go to the UPA government at the Centre and not to the government led by Mr. Achuthanandan,” he said.
Terming the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme the most revolutionary project in the world, Mr. Antony said the UPA government had spent nearly Rs.77,000 crore for uplift of weaker sections of society.
Earlier in the day, Mr. Antony while addressing his first public meeting at Kumbla town warned against encouraging religious fundamentalism, stating that it would be detrimental for the sustained growth of the nation.
Extremism
“Both majority and minority religious extremism are not good for development and are dangerous for the country,” he said at an election meeting to canvass votes for P.B. Abdul Razak, Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) nominee from the Manjeswaram Assembly segment. Those who strove to vitiate communal harmony should be termed enemies of the nation, he said.
Lauding the efforts of IUML leader the late Panakkad Syed Mohammedali Shihab Thangal in maintaining communal amity in the State when there was trouble across the country, Mr. Antony said the IUML, like the Congress, was playing a key role in protecting communal harmony.
Stating that the major objective of the UDF was to transform Kerala into a role model State, he said Kerala had witnessed a flurry of economic activity when the Congress-led UDF was in power in the past.
Mr. Antony addressed public meetings at Kumbla, Cherkala, Palakkunu, Odayamchal and Thrikarippur, thereby touching all the five assembly segments of Manjeswaram, Kasaragod, Uduma, Kanhangad and Thrikkarippur.
