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BJP dividing society on communal lines: Sonia

By Lalit Shastri

The Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, waving to the crowd at Chapada district in Madhya Pradesh on Saturday .— Photo: A. M. Faruqui

By Our Staff Correspondent

CHAPDA (Madhya Pradesh) JAN. 11. The Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, today virtually launched her party's campaign for the election to the Madhya Pradesh Assembly, due later this year, from this small village near the industrial town of Dewas by lambasting the Bharatiya Janata Party for "dividing the people of the country on communal lines."

Accusing the BJP-led Central Government of indulging in "rampant corruption," Ms. Gandhi said while the BJP talked of nationalism and patriotism, its acts were geared towards dividing the society. During the last election, it had promised that the people would be freed from fear, hunger and corruption but had created a situation where one section of the society lived under constant fear of another.

There was a difference between "dharma'' (religion) and communalism. The Congress was against communalism, not "dharma."

The Governments "should not follow any religion but try to serve all, cutting across caste or religion." On the issue of hunger, she said that even when the Central Government silos were overflowing with food grains, it had failed to ensure timely food supply to the States hit by drought.

Claiming that the States where the Congress was in power were faring better in terms of Governance, Ms. Gandhi had a special word of praise for Madhya Pradesh under the leadership of the Chief Minister, Digvijay Singh, and his initiative in helping the village communities form self-help groups for their economic betterment.

Ms. Gandhi said that it was Rajiv Gandhi's dream to decentralise power by establishing the Panchayati Raj system. In Madhya Pradesh, 54,000 villages had been brought under this system.

Earlier, Mr. Singh said that his Government had supplied free electricity to the people for seven years when Madhya Pradesh was a surplus State on the power front. Now, things were different and the people would have to cooperate and help in checking power theft.

Today's rally began on a jinxed note, as there was a short commotion soon after Ms. Gandhi's arrival, when a Congress worker in one of the crowded enclosures started bleeding profusely after he was hit on the head, perhaps by a security personnel. The Chief Minister had to intervene personally in this matter.

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