Election fever grips national capital

The election fever has gripped New Delhi, scheduled to go to poll on May 7, with frequent public rallies been conducting by ruling Congress and the chief Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party’s top leaders in favour of their candidates in different parts of the national capital.

A day after BJP’s PM-in-waiting L K Advani addressed public to garner support for BJP candidate Ramesh Bidhuri in South Delhi's Chhatarpur on Saturday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh launched scathing attack on opposition for playing “divisive politics” during an election rally in West Delhi’s Hari Nagar from where Mahabal Mishara is the Congress candidate.

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Singh, who shared dais with Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and five Congress candidates from Delhi’s seven LS seats except Kapil Sibbal and J P Aggarwal, who were busy in their constituencies, said parties who base their politics on religion and caste can not take the country forward.

Singh turned down the issue of black money stashed away in Swiss banks and other tax havens often raised by Advani and dubbed it as an “election stunt”, said either Advani and other BJP leaders had no understanding of economic issues or was deliberately misleading people on the issue.

“Whatever was important in this case has been done. We have also discussed the matter with the governments of other countries. This issue was also discussed at the G-20 Summit recently held in London,” Singh said, refuting the opposition’s allegations that the UPA government was not making any attempts to get the money back.

He appealed to the people to vote for Congress because this is the only party that has the experience and the ability to deal with the security concerns facing the country arising out of the instability in India’s neighbouring countries.

“There has been a decline in the peace and stability in our neighbouring countries, be it Nepal, Pakistan or Sri Lanka. This could also impact our country’s security. I think only a national party like the Congress has the experience and ability to confront such issues,” said the prime minister.

On the issue of terrorism, the BJP’s main arsenal to attack Congress for failing to tackle the problem, Dr. Singh reverted to the Kandhar episode—Congress best arsenal to encircle BJP.

“The BJP claims that it can deal with terrorism in a strong and decisive manner. However, the BJP’s track record during the NDA government shows something else: it released three dreaded terrorists in Afghanistan, terrorists attacked Parliament, the Red Fort, the Raghunath Temple and the Akshardham Temple and the Jammu & Kashmir Assembly while Advani was the home minister,” the prime minister said and left for people to decide who was the strong leader.

He listed the achievements of the Congress government at the Centre and the State, including measures taken by the government to strengthen the security systems in the aftermath of Mumbai attacks to tackle the menace of terrorism.