By IANS,
Lucknow : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Saturday fell back on Hindutva and terrorism, with its president Rajnath Singh harping on the Ram Setu controversy, the Amarnath shrine land transfer row, and parliament terror attack convict Afzal Guru at a rally here.
Speaking at the meeting, which the party termed an ‘Expose Corruption’ rally, Singh expressed surprise that the central government had questioned the existence of Lord Ram in its defence of the Setusamudram shipping canal project.
“If Ram didn’t exist, why did the father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi say ‘He Ram’ when he was dying and often chant the bhajan ‘Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram’?” he asked.
The BJP chief said the central government was unable to tackle terrorism for it was soft-paddling elements who stoked the flames of hatred.
He said: “All courts of the country had recommended the hanging of Afzal Guru (in the 2001 parliament attack case), but the central government is not allowing it.”
Referring to the trust vote the United Progressive Alliance’s (UPA’s) won in parliament July 22, Singh alleged that “as many as 49 MPs had been bought over by the central government”.
He refuted the charge that only BJP MPs had cross-voted in favour of the government in return for money.
He said the central government was misleading people on the India-US nuclear deal by saying it would solve the country’s electricity problem to a great extent.
“The government will spend Rs.20,000 crore (Rs.200 billion) on power, which would by 2020 meet only five percent of the country’s electricity requirement,” he said.
Besides this, electricity will cost Rs.6 to Rs.8 a unit then as against Rs.3 at present, he said.
Singh said the nuclear deal would only help the United States’ vested interests and wondered that the UPA government showed so much haste in pushing it.
“It took the US seven years (of negotiations) with Japan and 13 with China to sign a nuclear agreement. Why is India so much in a hurry?” he asked.
Meanwhile, senior BJP leaders Kalraj Mishra and Lalji Tandon called upon party activists to dethrone the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) government in Uttar Pradesh.
“BJP must launch a campaign to unmask Chief Minister Mayawati and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav. Charges of corruption have been levelled against both of them,” said Mishra.
Referring to the political career of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the party said he, unlike Mayawati and Yadav, was one of the few leaders who had not been named ever in any corrption inquiry.
The party leaders vowed to make senior BJP leader L.K. Advani the next prime minister.