IANS
Shillong/Itanagar, Mar 18
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he opposition is dividing the people of India on communal lines, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi said here Tuesday while launching his election campaign in Meghalaya.
“The opposition believes in centralisation of power and politics of anger. But the Congress believes in uniting people, giving power to people, to youth, to women to transform the society and in the politics of love,” Gandhi said at a huge rally at Resubelpara, the district headquarters of North Garo Hills.“We should create an India in which all of you feel that wherever we go, we will be welcomed with open arms. Such an ideology which attacks north Indians in Maharashtra, northeast people in Delhi… this is the ideology of the opposition,” he said, referring to the death of Arunachal Pradesh student Nido Tania in Delhi.
Gandhi was campaigning for party candidate Daryl William Momin, who is pitted against former Lok Sabha speaker Purno A. Sangma.
“Congress stands for every single Indian for their equal space in the country. People of Garo Hills and Meghalaya should feel at home anywhere in India,” he said.
Gandhi wondered why the opposition was not using the Right to Information Act.
“Congress has given the Right to Information Act. However, the opposition keeps on targeting us. If they have anything to point out, why are they not using RTI,” he asked.
He said the Congress took the initiative to introduce six anti-corruption bills, but the opposition did not allow the passage of the bills in parliament.
Gandhi said 14 crore people have been benefited by MGNREGA and the food security act.
“We will continue to work for the interest of the people. We will transform lives of 70 crore people, who are from the middle class,” he said.
Wooing women voters in this matrilineal state, the Congress leader said: “Policies for financial inclusion of women has been undertaken by the Congress and the party has also ensured reservation of women in parliament and state assemblies.”
“Women should get reservation, that’s why we are discussing a law for 33 percent reservation in Parliament,” he said.
Starting his party’s poll campaign for the April 9 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in Arunachal today, Gandhi alleged that BJP’s “divisive” policy was responsible for spoiling the country’s secular fabric and incidents of hate crime, while stressing that Congress’ ideology was to unite the people irrespective of caste, creed and religion. “The opposition wants to divide the people on political and religious lines, but we want to surge ahead for peace, progress and prosperity of people irrespective of their region,” he said
Days after he attacked BJP PM candidate Narndra Modi over the 2002 riots issue, Gandhi said that the religion-based ideology of the saffron party “has spoilt the secular nature of the country resulting in the racial discrimination of the people from the Northeast by the people of mainland India” and referred to the January 29 murder of Arunachalee student Nido Taniya in New Delhi.
Rahul said that Taniya had been killed because of ill feelings nursed against people of the Northeast by the people of mainland India. “Arunachal Pradesh being a part of India, its people should enjoy equal privileges in every state of the country. Racial discrimination should be rooted out completely and Congress is committed to this,” he said.
Rahul said that people of Arunachal and other Northeastern states should not feel neglected in other states of the country.
