By IANS,
Mandla (Madhya Pradesh) : Congress chief Sonia Gandhi Tuesday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of giving a communal colour to the issue of terrorism and also referred to the 1999 Kandahar hijack episode when terrorists were freed by the then National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government.
“Some people find shortcomings in our Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, but these people want to communalise even a serious issue like terrorism,” Gandhi said while addressing an election rally at Mandla in Madhya Pradesh.
“Some people” was an obvious reference to the BJP whose prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani has repeatedly called Manmohan Singh a weak prime minister.
Sonia Gandhi said the NDA government had freed terrorists in 1999 and taken them to Afghanistan and the same people were carrying out terrorist attacks in different parts of the world. Terrorists were released in exchange for Indian hostages at that time.
Gandhi also accused the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh of indulging in corruption and neglecting people’s welfare.
“We gave millions and millions to the state government for the welfare of people in the state. But people have not benefited from it. I want to ask what has the government done with this money? How has this money been used? To whose pocket has this money gone?” Gandhi said.
Polling in Madhya Pradesh will be held in two phases April 23 and April 30.