New Delhi, Feb 19: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today cautioned the Congress that its proposed ''India Cheating'' campaign would boomerang as its state governments were spending crores of rupees on issuing advertisements in newspapers while objecting to the Union government's ''India Shining'' campaign. Reacting to the threat by the Congress to bring out an ''India Cheating'' campaign, BJP president M Venkaiah Naidu said the Congress had ''ruled and ruined'' the country for five decades while posing hurdles to developmental tasks undertaken by the NDA government. They were now seeking another term at the Centre, he said.
The Congress-ruled governments of Delhi and Uttaranchal, which were facing a paucity of funds to undertake development work, were freely issuing advertisements to newspapers proclaiming Sonia Gandhi as the leader of opposition in Lok Sabha, which had been dissolved on February 06.
For these state governments carrying photographs of Sonia Gandhi was a legitimate exercise while the Centre giving information about the achievements of the NDA government was a sin, he remarked.
He defended the ''India Shining'' campaign, asserting that the government had the right to inform the electorate about its achievements and implementation of promises made to them. The advertisements did not carry symbols or photographs of any party leader, he pointed out.
He said there was a tremendous response to his Srinagar rally, which was taking place after a gap of 24 years. No BJP leader had held a public rally in the valley since the birth of the party in 1980. ''For me, this rally is historic and unforgettable, because I could meet cross sections of people,'' he said. Bureau Report