NEWS
ANALYSIS
SPECIALS
INTERVIEW
CAMPAIGN TRAIL
CONSTITUENCY
ISSUES
GALLERY
MANIFESTOS
OVERHEARD
INDIA SPEAKS!
COUNTDOWN
CHAT
PREVIOUS RESULTS
SCHEDULE
DISCUSSION GROUP

Sonia accuses BJP of sacrificing India's interests for Pakistan

Congress president Sonia Gandhi today lambasted the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government for "sacrificing our country's interests for the enemy's benefit". She was referring to the alleged sugar import scandal.

Addressing a public meeting in Patan, Gujarat, Gandhi said the government imported sugar from Pakistan last year despite the country having enough stock of the commodity. Some relatives of Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief were "instrumental" in this deal, she said.

In her eight-minute speech, Gandhi said the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government was responsible for the Rs 25,000 million telecom scam in which a "few people were benefited".

About Kargil, she said that despite the prime minister, defence minister and home minister "knowing about the Pakistani intrusion since September last year", Vajpayee went ahead with his Lahore bus trip in February this year.

Claiming that the weaker sections, including the dalits, minorities and women, were subjected to atrocities under the Vajpayee government's rule, Gandhi accused the BJP of being "merchants of hatred".

Charging the BJP governments at the Centre and in Gujarat with "failure on all fronts", she referred to the prevailing water shortage in the Saurashtra region in this regard.

Equating the BJP with communalism, she said the same persons who demolished the Babri Masjid in 1992 are now claiming to be secular. "Have they forgotten the riots of those days," she asked.

Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee president C D Patel, Praveen Rashtrapal, the party's nominee in Patan, Atmaram Patel, the candidate in Mehsana, and former state home minister Vipul Choudhary accompanied Gandhi.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report