Badaun/Bhimnagar: Taking his campaign to
Mulayam Singh Yadav`s turf, Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday stepped up his
offensive against SP and BSP and sought a ten-year Congress
rule in UP to bring about a major transformation through
fast-tracking developmental work in the state.
Gandhi, who began his five-day trip today, said only
Congress has taken up the cause of people in the state. Citing
Bhatta Parsaul, where farmers were targeted in May, he said,
none of the other parties barring Congress were seen there.
"In the past 20 years, what did you get? You trusted SP.
What did you get back in return? You trusted BSP. What did you
get? (You got) corruption. Now, we are talking about
development, we are talking about the future.
"UP can change. This is not difficult. Take it from me in
writing. In five years, we can start changing this state and
in ten years, people from outside will come here looking for
jobs. People will then ask, what is happening in UP...we can
change things easily," he told a political rally here.
Samajwadi Party workers attempted to block the cavalcade
of Gandhi, who started his five-day tour of western districts
of poll-bound Uttar Pradesh.
About 15 Samajwadi Party activists were detained as they
tried to breach the security cordon of Gandhi, who is an SPG
protectee, Senior Superintendent of Police Satyendra Veer
Singh said.
Claiming that people have been suffering for the past two
decades, Gandhi said people ask him why they have to leave UP
for jobs outside.
Launching an attack on Mayawati, he said there were scams
in every constituency and there was no dearth of money but
"ministers are stealing it".
"The money is not reaching you. Influential people do not
feel the problems but it is the poor who are suffering. The
problem today is that the leaders do not come to the ground,"
he said.
Gandhi said people from Uttar Pradesh are going to
Maharashtra, Haryana, Delhi and Punjab and contributing to the
development of these states. He added that once Congress
formed its government the youth would get employment in the
state itself and they would be making contribution to its
growth.
Targetting political rivals, he said that "people of the
state showed confidence in the Samawjadi Party and they got
nothing and then they backed BSP and got corruption".
During his tour, Gandhi would address 19 public meetings
in as many assembly constituencies.
In the next four days, he will address public meetings in
Badaun, Shahjahanpur, Farukkhabad, Kannauj and Auraiya
districts. Rahul`s tour would culminate at Akbarpur in Kanpur
(rural) district on December 17.
Without taking names, the Congress leader said that in
order to really understand poverty it was necessary to go to
villages eat their food and take the contaminated water that
the villagers are taking but your leaders are not doing it.
"It is required that one moves at the ground level to
understand the reality but the leaders are viewing things from
their helicopters", he said.
Referring to his visit to Maharashtra, he said that a
native of UP there complained that he was being harassed by
Shiv Sena and asked as to when he would get job in his own
state. "It is things like these that make me angry", he said.
Reiterating his charge against the Mayawati government of
snatching land from farmers and opening fire on those
demanding appropriate compensation, Rahul also accused her of
terming MGNREGS as an unnecessary programme.
He also repeated his charge of opposition members
opposing the proposed land acquisition in the standing
committee of the parliament.
Referring to MNREGS and Safe motherhood schemes of
the central government, he alleged misuse of funds saying that
the money meant for the common people was not reaching them.
He also referred to the "India Shining" slogan of the
UPA, saying that the country would not shine till there is
even a single poor.
Gandhi said, "there is no dearth of funds...whatever the
state asks for they get but it is misused by the Mayawati
government where ministers are looting money and if the SP and
BSP return to power funds would continue to be misused".
The Congress leader said that he would not even name BJP
as that party is on ventilator in Uttar Pradesh.
Lamenting the bad state of affairs in Uttar Pradesh since
the past 20 years of non-Congress governments which he said
have been working for particular castes and not for the entire
state, he said that amenities like road, water among are not
meant for specific castes.
Targeting the BSP government, the Congress General
Secretary said that the elephant (BSP symbol) that Mayawati
had made sit in Lucknow is eating away funds of MNREGS and
other central schemes.
PTI
