Bhopal, April 21 (IANS) Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi Tuesday said opposition parties were trying to divide India on communal and regional lines and once again took on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for its 'dismal' record in handling terrorism and practising divisive politics.
Gandhi said the Congress believed in treating every Indian state and every Indian equally but there were parties which tend to divide the country.
'We say that we have to take everyone together to take the nation to new heights. But they try to create fractions among the people sometimes in the name of Hindu and Muslim and sometimes on the basis of Marathi and Bihari,' he said addressing a poll rally in Madhya Pradesh.
'This' he said, 'was the basic difference between the Congress and other parties.'
Gandhi alleged that the opposition parties were never worried about the real issues like poverty, education, problems of farmers. But were talking about things which were hardly related to the welfare of poor, he said.
He addressed poll meetings at Balaghat and Pipariya in Madhya Pradesh
Terming as dismal the National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) record in handling terrorism, Gandhi said the BJP was raking up the issue as it had no interest in the development and welfare of the common man.
The BJP, he said, itself stands exposed 'as the terrorists who were responsible for the recent Mumbai attacks were let off by their government when the Kandahar (the December 1999 hijack of Indian Airlines plane) incident happened'.
He asked whether the then home minister Advani was not aware of the point that in return of freeing the plane hostages at Kandahar, the dreaded terrorists were freed in Delhi.
'The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government acted decisively in tackling the Mumbai attacks and exerted intense diplomatic pressure on Pakistan, putting onus on it for the terror mechanism operating from its soil.
'The result was that Pakistan had to accept the perpetrators of the terror act belonged to its soil.'
He said the state BJP government has 'not only failed to provide 'bijli, sadak and pani' (electricity, road and water) to the poor people but also did not properly utilise the funds given for the welfare of poor and tribal people of the state.
Launching a scathing attack on the BJP's prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani, Gandhi said: 'Why did Advani not remember to bring back the alleged black money for even once during the five years of the BJP-led NDA rule and why was he raising this during (the) elections.'
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