IANS/Amethi
Congress Party president Sonia Gandhi yesterday slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party, saying its “false propaganda” on corruption charges against the government was nothing but an attempt to cover up cases of corruption in states ruled by the main opposition party.
“All those people who are themselves neck deep in corruption are levelling various kinds of allegations against us,” Gandhi said at a public meeting in Amethi, from where her son and party vice president Rahul Gandhi is contesting.
Defending the track record of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government in fighting corruption, she said: “I want to tell you that in the fight against corruption, we brought an anti-corruption law - the Right to Information Act. It is because of this that many cases of corruption have come to light.”
Daring the BJP to tell people what action its state governments had taken against people involved in corruption, Gandhi said the UPA government has hauled up those found guilty.
“We have taken firm steps against those accused (of corruption). I challenge the BJP to tell if they have made similar laws in the states ruled by them, taken action against those accused of corruption. Have they punished them? Not at all,” she said.
The Congress chief lashed out at the BJP campaign that says nothing has been done in India in the last 65 years since independence by successive Congress governments.
“Our opposition BJP is engaged in a malicious campaign against us,” she said.
Listing the achievements in various fields, Gandhi said the country has witnessed green revolution, white revolution, strides in nuclear energy, advancement in technology, industry, agriculture, irrigation, communication, education and infrastructure.
“All this was possible because of the Congress’s policies and its work coupled with hard work by the people,” she said.
In the last 10 years, the UPA has given the country laws that guarantee right to free and compulsory education up to the age of 14, right to food security that provides subsidised food for the poor and rural employment guarantee.
The Congress president said India has come a long way but still “a lot more has to be done,” as she counted the numerous development works undertaken in Amethi to link it with the mainstream through faster road and rail connectivity.
Gandhi tried to strike an emotional chord and told the gathering that she had given her son Rahul to the people of Amethi in 2004.
She said the Congress vice president had done a lot of development work in the constituency and the remaining work will be finished in his next term.
“You have given a lot of love to Rahul and Priyanka and we are grateful for it,” Gandhi said and added that despite a lot of pressure, the Congress flag was flying high in the constituency.
In other developments, V Balakrishnan, the former Infosys honcho and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) contestant from the Bangalore Central Lok Sabha seat, said he would campaign for the party’s national convener Arvind Kejriwal, who is contesting from Varanasi.
“I am definitely going to Varanasi to campaign for Arvind though the dates are yet to be finalised,” Balakrishnan said yesterday, while unwinding after Thursday’s polling in 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka and a month-long hectic electioneering in the tech hub of Bangalore.
Kejriwal decided to enter the race after the BJP announced on March 16 that its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi would contest from Varanasi. The polling is on May 12.
Modi is also contesting from Vadodara in Gujarat, where the voting is on April 30.
“I will also be campaigning for our party in some constituencies where elections are due in the next three weeks,” Balakrishnan said.
The financial wizard, who joined the fledgling party on January 1 after quitting the IT bellwether on December 31, will also meet co-ordinators in the assembly segments of his constituency to put in place a structure for greater use of IT and to interface with people.
