By IANS,
Bhopal : Terming as dismal the National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) record in handling terrorism, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi Sunday said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was raking up the issue as it had no interest in the development and welfare of the common man.
Addressing a rally in support of Raja Pateria, the Congress candidate from Madhya Pradesh’s Panna constituency, 425 km from here, Gandhi said the BJP which is making so much of hue and cry over terrorism itself stands exposed “as the terrorists who were responsible for the recent Mumbai attacks were let off by their government when the Kandahar incident happened”.
Gandhi said: “The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government acted decisively in tackling the Mumbai attacks and exerted intense diplomatic pressure on Pakistan, putting onus on it for the terror mechanism operating from its soil. The result was that Pakistan had to accept that the perpetrators of the terror act belonged to its soil”.
“Look at the UPA Government, which is truly a government of the aam-aadmi (common men). And look at the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh. It is a government of a privileged few,” said Gandhi.
“Of one rupee sent for the welfare of the poor and the tribal people by the UPA government at the centre, hardly 10 paisa reaches them,” he alleged, adding that the BJP government in the state not only failed to provide “bijli, sadak and pani” (electricity, road and water) to the poor people but also did not properly utilise the funds given for the welfare of poor and tribal people of the state.