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

PM blames Congress for Kargil

Syed Firdaus Ashraf

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today squarely blamed the Congress for the intrusion by Pakistani soldiers in Kargil.

Addressing a huge rally of 100,000 people at Bombay's Shivaji Park, he said: "If the Congress had not brought down my government, the Kargil war wouldn't have taken place."

He said, "Pakistan saw that there was instability in the country and decided to take advantage. But they underestimated India's strength and were defeated badly."

Vajpayee, who addressed the rally jointly with Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray just three days before the second phase of polling on September 11, claimed that this was the first conflict since Independence in which India did not lose "an inch" of its territory.

"Even in 1971, when we won the war, I told Mrs Indira Gandhi to make an agreement to return the 90,000 captured Pakistani soldiers only if they returned occupied Kashmir. But somehow that didn't happen," he lamented.

"China has also taken our territory [in 1962] and we are trying to get it back from them in a peaceful manner," he added.

Recalling his recent visit to Lahore, he said a Pakistani politician had told him that 'Kashmir ke bugaer Pakistan adhoora hai (Pakistan is incomplete without Kashmir)'. "I retorted that 'Pakistan ke bugaer Hindustan adhoora hai (India is incomplete without Pakistan)'.

"We want peace. That is why we have a lotus as our symbol. But at the same time if the enemy takes us for granted, we have a bow and arrow [the Shiv Sena's election symbol] to challenge them," he said amid much applause.

Criticising the Congress on Kargil, he said, "They wanted to make Kargil an election issue. But they saw that people just didn't believe them. In fact, I reminded the Congress leaders that when I was in the opposition, I supported Mrs Indira Gandhi throughout the Bangladesh war. But today Congress leaders, instead of supporting us during the crisis, are criticising the government."

He accused the Congress of trying to create new scandals every day. "First, they took wheat imports. When I replied to those charges, they began accusing us of a sugar scam. But let me tell you that not a single grain of sugar has been imported from Pakistan ever since the Kargil war broke out," Vajpayee said.

Vajpayee said the Congress had no issues to contest the election with and hence was resorting to muckraking. "Unlike us, they just want to be in power," he said.

He claimed that the BJP had joined politics to serve the nation. "And our government has served much better than the 45 years of Congress rule," he added.

"In the last 13 months the country has not witnessed a single riot," he said. "Moreover, in Maharashtra, there have been no riots in the last four and half years of BJP-Shiv Sena rule. So we have improved on every front. Be it the economic front, low inflation, stable rupee or Sensex. And that is why the Congress could not digest this and brought down the government," he said.

"One vote brought my government down. Now your one vote will see to it that our government returns to power. Your one vote is going to decide the future of this country," he told the gathering.

Earlier, Thackeray quipped that while Vajpayee was busy fighting in Kargil, "I am fighting Gill [the chief election commissioner] who has disfranchised me."

But the Election Commission's action did seem to have left its mark on the Shiv Sena politician, and he was much more sober in his speech, saying, "The EC may take action against Vajpayeeji if I go overboard".

While Thackeray's speech harped on the familiar themes of Kargil and not allowing a foreign-born national to lead the country, he also appealed to his supporters not to leave early for their native villages for the annual Ganeshotsav festival, which begins on Monday, September 13, just two days after the second phase of polling.

He also criticised former Union finance minister Manmohan Singh for insinuating that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh had a part to play in the anti-Sikh riots of 1984.

Attacking his bete noir, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, Thackeray said if his party is really a national party, Pawar should address meeting all over the country instead of in the bylanes of Bombay suburbs like Ghatkopar and Bhandup.

Finally, he appealed to the assemblage to at least vote for the Sena-BJP alliance "if you cannot sacrifice your life for the nation".

Tell us what you think of this report