The Hindu : Vote BJP, NC out, says Sonia

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Sep 21, 2002

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National

Vote BJP, NC out, says Sonia

By Our Staff Reporter

The Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, the Chhattisgarh Chief Minister, Ajit Jogi, the AICC general secretary, Ambika Soni, and the Jammu and Kashmir PPC president, Gulam Nabi Azad, at an election rally in Jammu city on Friday. — Photo: Munish Byala

Jammu Sept. 20. Holding the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance at the Centre — of which the National Conference is a constituent — responsible for the extension of terrorism to the entire State of Jammu and Kashmir, the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, today said that the State and the Central Governments had caused misery through their wrong polices.

In a hard-hitting speech, Ms. Gandhi described the National Conference and the BJP as two sides of the same coin and asked the people to vote them out of power.

"Our country is fighting two battles, one from across the border from where terrorism is being exported and the fundamentalist forces within which are bent upon destroying the secular fabric of the country and weakening our fight against the external enemy," she said.

Describing the alliance of the ruling National Conference with the Centre as "opportunism," Ms. Gandhi said, "there is no difference between the two and the common thing between them is opportunism for the sake of power."

During their rule, terrorism had spread to the Jammu regions of Doda, Rajouri, Poonch and the Jammu city.

The Congress had been far more effective in meeting the challenge of terrorism, whether it was in Punjab or Assam, but the Centre had no policy on terrorism at all.

"I know what terrorism means to the women and children as my husband and mother-in-law, who were your beloved leaders, were victims of terrorism."

The elections in the State were an opportunity to teach the BJP and the National Conference "a lesson," Ms. Gandhi said. Paying glowing tributes to the people who had voted in large numbers in the first phase of elections in spite of intimidation from various quarters, she said, "the people must demonstrate the same enthusiasm in the remaining phases as every vote will be an inch forward for creating a conducive environment in the State and the return of the Kashmiri Pandits to the Valley."

She said the 14 Congress-ruled States were in the forefront of development and that she personally monitored the implementation of the party's electoral promises.

Jammu had been discriminated against on various fronts, she alleged, adding "the Congress is committed to equitable political and economic development of all the three regions of the State."

Regional boards

Taking the parties demanding the trifurcation of the State to task, she asked, "where were all these forces during the last six years? Only during the elections, they raise their voices."

The Congress had, in its party manifesto, included the formation of regional developmental boards, which could solve the problem of the people of Jammu.

The funds for the boards would come from an independent and autonomous finance commission.

Ms. Gandhi assured the border migrants numbering over a lakh that they would be rehabilitated if the Congress came to power.

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