Teach Congress a lesson:
PM
From
P.P.S. Gill
Tribune News Service
MOGA, Sept 3 — The
Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, today called
upon the Punjabis to teach the Congress a lesson by not
voting for its candidates.
Addressing a public
meeting in the new grain market here, Mr Vajpayee made a
scathing attack on the Congress and its policies saying
it had earned the dubious distinction of being the single
party, engaged in the "toppling" game. He
listed instances of it first extending support and later
withdrawing it.
Describing the Congress
as desperate for power he said "toppling elected
governments seems to have become a pastime with the
Congress.
Mr Vajpayee said just
one vote had decided the fate of his government. Had the
BJP-led coalition government desired, it could have asked
the Speaker to vote in its favour.
As he continued to
lambast the Congress the crowd applauded. Mr Vajpayee
said the Congress manifesto was silent on its future
government whether it would go it alone or have a
coalition.
"Let the country
know what communal amity is. How hard-earned peace and
Hindu-Sikh unity have paved the way for brotherhood and
development. Punjab has seen enough of bloodshed. With
people's cooperation that dark phase is over. People's
cooperation and unity is the real wealth", he
stressed.
Mr Vajpayee said the
Congress had only one policy: to create divisions, and
orchestrate fights among communities. But the aim of the
country and NDA was different: to fight poverty,
joblessness, diseases and provide medicare and ensure
proper education for men and women.
Mr Vajpayee also took on
the Congress on the Kargil issue and said it was an
"insult" to the martyrs who were being
exploited and dragged into campaigning by the Congress.
Even the Kargil operation and India's emerging stronger
was unpalatable to the Congress. All knew that Pakistan
had repeatedly attacked India by stealth.
Should the Congress not
be blamed when Pakistan forcibly occupied a part of
Kashmir and it remained with Pakistan, he asked.
"Despite our repeated urging, the Congress never
bothered to go in for hard bargaining with Pakistan on
the territory, not even when India held 90,000 prisoners
of war in the 1971 war," he said.
Earlier, Mr Parkash
Singh Badal and his son also spoke. The Congress had held
an election meeting, addressed by Mr Sonia Gandhi at the
same venue on August 28. Comparisons thus become obvious.
The mega-show organised
by the SAD today was intended as a show of "strength
and support". Besides bringing people from the
Faridkot constituency's nine assembly segments, a large
number had been mobilised even from the adjoining
Ferozepur constituency. A senior police officer said at
least 840 trucks came from the neighbouring district.
Compared to the Congress
rally, the SAD rally was more organised. Free langars
were put up at several places and this town known for the
manufacture of harvesting machines seemed to be bursting
at the seems. There was confusion, chaos and traffic jams
as all hell broke loose after the rally ended.
The heat, dust, humidity
and the sultry weather added to the misery. The audience
at times became restive with thousands swarming all over
the town to look for shade, water and langar. Fruit
sellers and tea stall owners did brisk business.
Varinder Walia adds
from Amritsar: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee
promised to form a coalition government at the Centre
even should the BJP get an absolute majority on its own.
The Congress would
topple elected governments with 'sinister designs' of
other parties but after toppling it would prefer to come
to power on its own. Mr Vajpayee said that the time had
come to teach the Congress a lesson. It was due to the
toppling of our government that Pakistan made an attempt
to intrude into the Kargil sector. The development work
initiated by the BJP-led coalition could not be
"digested" by the Congress.
Mr Vajpayee promised to
get the Women Reservation Bill passed if voted to power.
This was the last
election rally of Mr Vajpayee for the first round as the
campaigning came to end at 5 p.m. today. Mr Vajpayee who
started his speech at 4.15 p.m. and spoke till 4.45 p.m.
Mr Vajpayee promised
that the Lok Pal Act would be passed if the BJP and its
allies came to power after the forthcoming elections and
the Prime Minister would not be kept outside its purview.
Without mentioning Mr Narasimha Rao, Mr Vajpayee said a
Congress PM was facing corruption charges.
The Prime Minister
claimed that the BJP was a secular party and no big riot
had taken place during his 13-month rule. He accused the
Congress of the gruesome murder of a Christian priest in
Orissa.
Mr Vajpayee said that
bus diplomacy and the Kargil conflict had shown two
significant aspects of the BJP-led coalition government
at the Centre. The bus diplomacy told the world that
India was for peace. While, the Kargil conflict made it
clear that India knew how to frustrate the nefarious
designs of the enemy in the battlefield as well.
Mr Narinder Modi,
national general secretary, BJP struck an emotional chord
with voters of this holy city by referring to anti-Sikh
riots of November 1984. He said that Dr Manmohan Singh, a
Congress leader and former Union Finance Minister, had
hurt the sentiments of Sikhs by describing the
"Delhi massacre" as "riots". He said
it was not a riot as Sikhs did not participate in the
violence.
|
spotlight
