EC should de-recognise Congress: Rajnath

LUCKNOW: The latest round of serial blasts in New Delhi has given fresh ammunition to the BJP to blast the Congress and the UPA government at the Centre on terrorism and the alleged appeasement of minorities.

“The Congress and its government have only encouraged terrorism. The anti-national character of the Congress has been exposed... the Election Commission should cancel the recognition of this party,” BJP president Rajnath Singh said at the BJP’s Vijay Sankalp rally at Bahraich on Monday.

The BJP president held out a series of promises: “If the BJP comes to power, Pota will be reinstated, Afzal Guru would be hanged, the support price of rice would be Rs1,100 per quintal, farmers would get loans at 4% interest. We will ensure prosperity and security in the country.”

The BJP chief also lambasted the BSP and the Samajwadi Party (SP), saying that the governments of both these parties failed to take firm steps against terrorism. “The presidents of both these parties are facing CBI inquiries for disproportionate assets. If there was even one such case against me, I would have taken sanyas from politics,” he remarked.

“Non-BJP governments at the Centre and in UP have deliberately gone soft on terrorism. It is only the BJP which fought against terrorism. There were terrorist attacks on the parliament and at the Akshardham temple in Gujarat during the BJP regime, too. But in both cases, our security forces gunned down the terrorists on the spot because their morale was high,” he said.

“In UP, Mulayam Singh as chief minister refused to enforce the ban on Simi saying it is a religious and cultural organisation. The Congress-led government at the Centre in the last four years has also done nothing to neutralise this terrorist organisation... the SP, Congress and the BSP are playing a political game to appease the minorities for their votes... they are playing with the safety and security of the country,” Singh said. The BJP chief devoted special attention to the Mayawati government in UP.

“The BSP got majority in UP because Mayawati promised to send Mulayam Singh and Amar Singh to jail. But it has not done anything. She had promised good law and order. But today there is jangal raj in UP instead of the rule of law,” he said.

He sung praises to the BJP government in UP under Kalyan Singh, though the latter, known to be sulking for a long time now, stayed away from the rally. Senior BJP leaders Vinay Katiyar and Om Prakash Singh, and UP BJP president Ramapati Ram Tripathi shared the rostrum with Rajnath.

The BJP would be organising a series of Vijay Sankalp rallies throughout the state.
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