Congress President Sonia Gandhi took on all three major opponent political Parties over their charges of corruption on UPA-II government and blamed these party leaders as most corrupt, on Monday afternoon.
‘’Today, there are lots of talks on corruption and our opponents, who themselves are most corrupt, level baseless allegations against us (Congress) on it. But they forget that it was the Congress party which implemented RTI - the most powerful weapon to fight graft. Every citizen can legally gather any information regarding government functioning,’’ she said. Sonia Gandhi, while addressing a party election rally at Aonla lok Sabha constituency, which goes to poll on April 17, further, said it is the Congress, which enacted Right to Education to ensure free education for all children upto 14 years of age.
‘’To fight poverty and malnutrition, we implemented Food Security scheme. For the benefits of our soldiers, we implemented one-ran-one-pension scheme. We also framed stringent laws to curb atrocities against women. All these policies by the UPA government are aimed at empowering our people and to make them self reliant’’, she added.
Congress president, without taking the name of her sister-in-law Menaka Gandhi, who represented the seat at present but has now shifted to Pilibhit said, ‘’I feel sad that this region does not have any institute for training and higher education for girls. Similarly, there are no sufficient healthcare facilities for the poor here. The sugarcane farmers are struggling a lot as they are forced to carry their crops to miles far as there are no proper transport facilities.’’ She said the state government is not bothered about these difficulties being faced by the common people.
‘’You also must be aware that the state government has not yet taken up any measures to materialise the long pending proposal for generating electricity from IFFCO plant here,’’ she alleged. Talking about anti-country propoganda by the Opposition parties, she claimed to feel very sad to see that some parties are trying to damage the rich culture of unity and togetherness. “They try to destroy our tradition of unity in diversity and spread hatred among people for their narrow political gains. They try to divide the people in terms of caste, religion and community. Their ultimate aim is to grab power and only people can teach them a lesson”, she urged.
Sonia Gandhi said Congress always tried to take every people, every section, together without any discrimination. “We always gave special focus for the welfare of the weak and downtrodden. We made several policies for their upliftment. This is the difference between the Congress and its opponents. This is the differences between the Congress which delivers and our rivals which just talk big” argued the Congress President.
Taking on the Opposition, Sonia Gandhi said further, “You have witnessed the anti-people regime of SP and BSP. You also are well aware about the divisive BJP politics. These parties spread hatred among the people in terms of caste and religion and make people fight each other. They are a threat to secularism.” “We must understand that peace is necessary of development of the country and welfare of the people. Any ideology that divides people and spreads hatred and disharmony is dangerous for the nation and its people,” she said.
The Congress president said,” the people must think properly and take a wise decision before voting. The need of the hour is to bring in a secular government and only the Congress party can provide the same for you. I am confident that the people will never support a divisive ideology and will never elect people who are promoting such dangerous politics.” She claimed that she was also sure that people will support the ideology of the Congress party and will give their valuable support to them, she appealed to the people.