Sunday, Dec 01, 2002
Sunday, Dec 01, 2002 |
| Front Page | ||
|
News:
Front Page |
National |
Southern States |
Other States |
International |
Opinion |
Business |
Sport |
Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary | Front Page
By Manas Dasgupta
The December 12 elections to the Assembly, Mr. Advani said, was not merely between the BJP and the Congress but was between the "people'' of the State and the forces that "unnecessarily maligned and defamed'' Gujaratis. ``It is for you to take revenge for the bad name the Congress brought to you nationally and internationally,'' Mr. Advani told a comparatively small but cheering crowd. Speaking in the same language Mr. Modi used during his gaurav rath yatra, Mr. Advani said, "it is not only for us, the BJP and the Modi administration to reply to the baseless, issueless charges, but for the people to give a fitting reply to the `canard' that the people of Gujarat were killers, rapists and arsonists''. Without directly referring to the Godhra train carnage and the post-Godhra riots, Mr. Advani launched a blistering attack on the Congress. While Mr. Advani addressed rallies at Bhuj, district headquarter of earthquake-ravaged Kutch, and Rajkot, a host of other Central Ministers and BJP central leaders fanned out into different parts of the State launching simultaneous campaigns. Among them were the party president, Venkaiah Naidu, who was in Anand, the general secretary, Arun Jaitley, in north Gujarat, and the Union Ministers, Murli Manohar Joshi, in Surat, Sushma Swaraj in Ahmedabad, Uma Bharati in Rajkot and Pramod Mahajan in other parts of the Saurashtra region. While Ms. Swaraj said that the coming elections would be a mandate to fight terrorism, Ms. Bharti said in Rajkot that Godhra could not be ignored by the BJP because the Congress had raised the issue. She said the BJP was in total agreement with the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, that Godhra should not be made an election issue, but since the Congress had violated it, the BJP would be forced to reply to the charges. Mr. Advani said that for 32 years he had been a member of Parliament, of which only for seven years he was in the Government. But even as an Opposition member he never discredited the Government, be it of the Congress or any other party, during visits abroad. "But the Congress leaders behaved differently, spoke more vehemently abroad than at home against the State Government and the people, painting them as devils.'' Praising Mr. Modi for the "exemplary handling'' of the post-Godhra riots, Mr. Advani said the Chief Minister was the "biggest sufferer of the baseless canard'' of the Congress which reminded him of the Emergency days when the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, had accused the Opposition leaders of plotting to kill her and her family members. "We were shocked to learn this in the jails but on our behalf the people then gave a fitting reply to her, removing her from power in the next elections.'' He said a similar situation now prevailed in the State where the people needed to give a fitting reply to the Congress' canard. Even when he and the then Law Minister, Arun Jaitley, were "reeling out proofs'' in defence of the State Government in Parliament, the Congress "kept repeating the same baseless charges without any substance''. He said he was shocked at the Congress' charges against the entire police administration that he found wrong during his visit to Bhavnagar. Not only Muslims, even CPI(M) leaders had called on him and appreciated the police role in saving 400 Muslim children trapped in a Madrasa, but the Congress "continued to malign the entire police force''. He asked the people not to fall prey to Pakistan's design to cause communal clashes in different parts of the country to destabilise India. "That was the intention behind the terrorist attack on the Raghunath temple in Jammu and the Akshardham temple, but never allow this to happen.'' Like Mr. Modi, Mr. Advani without referring to the State Congress president, Shankarsinh Waghela, said that he felt "pity'' for the Congress which could not find a leader of its own and had to "borrow a discard of the BJP'' to make its president. But his address was devoid of any reference to the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi.
Printer friendly
page
News:
Front Page |
National |
Southern States |
Other States |
International |
Opinion |
Business |
Sport |
Miscellaneous |
|
|
|
The Hindu Group: Home | About Us | Copyright | Archives | Contacts | Subscription Group Sites: The Hindu | Business Line | The Sportstar | Frontline | Home |
Copyright © 2002, The
Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of
this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of
The Hindu
|
