By IANS,
Silchar (Assam): In a scathing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress president Sonia Gandhi Monday said the BJP-led government compromised on India’s national security by exchanging three terrorists for the Indian Airlines hostages in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in December 1999.
“Today one of them (Masood Azhar who later founded the Jaish-e-Mohammed) is masterminding terror acts in India and you know who was there in the government…it was Lal Krishna Advani who was then the deputy prime minister and also the home minister of India,” Gandhi told an election rally in the southern Assam town of Silchar.
“The Congress party would never compromise on terrorism and pledges to fight terror very firmly.”
Gandhi was on a daylong tour of the northeast and addressed election rallies in Arunachal Pradesh capital Itanagar, Meghalaya capital Shillong, and a poll meeting in Silchar.
“We need to wage a war against terrorism and also communalism…the BJP believes in false promises and propagandas,” the Congress president said.
Describing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as a person with a “clean image”, Gandhi said the Congress party is the only party that could provide stability and good governance.
“Manmohan Singh, with his clean image and efficient leadership, can provide a strong government to the country,” Gandhi said.
Talking about the pre-poll tie-up between the BJP and the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) in Assam, the Congress president said such alliances were just for power and not in the interest of the common people.
“The AGP is a party based on false promises and hopes and the two of them got together for power alone,” she said.