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Sonia blames BJP for deaths of Indian soldiers

Congress president Sonia Gandhi today made a frontal attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre, saying it was playing politics with the nation's security while hundreds of Indian soldiers were being killed on the frontier.

Addressing a well-attended election meeting in Tiruchirapalli to seek support for Congress candidate L Adaikkalaraj, Gandhi charged that despite numerous messages about possible infiltration by Pakistan, the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government was busy preparing for the prime minister's visit to Lahore.

By the time the government realised the gravity of the situation, it was too late and hundreds of our jawans had to lay down their lives to save the day, she said.

Gandhi's politicisation of the Kargil crisis came within days of the Election Commission warning parties to be careful in using the conflict as an election issue.

Stating that the current election holds the key to the country's future, Gandhi accused the BJP-led government of dividing the country by playing one religion against another. Leaving the country in the hands of divisive forces would pose a great threat to its unity, she warned.

She, however, desisted from blaming the A B Vajpayee government for the attacks on minorities last year. Instead, she took up the cause of the dalits this time.

Atrocities on dalits and other weaker sections have been on the rise since the BJP-led government came to power, she said.

The Congress is the protector of dalits and other weaker sections and minorities in the country, she claimed. Atrocities and violence against dalits have increased, but the governments at the Centre and in Tamil Nadu have done nothing to prevent them, she said.

Accusing the BJP of slinging mud on her, Gandhi declared that she had come to India as the daughter-in-law of the late Indira Gandhi and borne children to Rajiv Gandhi, and she would live here and die here.

Scoffing at the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance's assurance of stability in the country, she wondered that if an eighteen-party coalition could not guarantee stability, how could 22 parties offer stability. If anything, the front would pull the country in 22 different directions, she quipped.

The Congress, on the other hand, stands for equal opportunities for all, secularism and social, political and economic equality for women. The Women's Reservation Bill will be passed in Parliament if the Congress is elected, she promised.

Though the Congress is in alliance with the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in the state and other parties elsewhere, Gandhi did not say whether a coalition government would be formed if the front led by her party is voted to power.

UNI

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