UP slowing down the country:and we are not going to let this happen“The people and the youth have the energy to transform the state, Rahul Gandhi

UP slowing down the country: Rahul Gandhi



Maulshree Seth : Varanasi, Tue Feb 07 2012, 02:35 hrs
FP
The backwardness of Uttar Pradesh is pulling the country back, and Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mayawati would never be able to bring about positive change, Rahul Gandhi said at the end of the campaign for the first phase of assembly elections in the state today.

“UP is slowing India down, and we are not going to let this happen,” Rahul said. The need for change was urgent, and he was 100 per cent convinced that UP can be transformed, Rahul said at his first campaign press conference. “The people and the youth have the energy to transform the state... all that UP needs is someone who can hold its hand and say it.”

The Congress general secretary attacked the BJP and its senior leader L K Advani on several fronts, including the BJP’s opposition to the Lokpal bill in parliament, Advani’s yatra against corruption, scandals in BJP-ruled states, and what he said was the “obsession” of “some big leaders” with becoming prime minister.

“There are some big leaders in India, who are obsessed with becoming prime minister but I am not. I am a transmitter, who has no power of his own. All I have is the belief of some people in me because I listen to them and talk about their issues.

“I do not fool people by talking about converting Bundelkhand into Israel, or sending students to foreign countries. It is criminal (to do so).”

Targeting Advani directly, he said, “Advaniji took out a yatra without listening to people. He is trying to convince people about what he knows he cannot do.” Advani never spoke about corruption in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand or the ‘coffin scam’, he said.

Rahul said he had seen Advani and several other opposition leaders “laughing” in parliament when he spoke about a constitutional Lokpal on the lines of the Election Commission. “Mr Advani and other opposition leaders laughed at me. I saw them with my own eyes sitting there and laughing. This idea is a fundamental, powerful idea of this country and they laughed.”

Rahul said he was “fond of Mayawati”, and “respected her as well as Mulayam Singh Yadav”, but the fact was that neither of them ever went out and met the people. He also praised BSP founder Kanshi Ram as a “a true leader who moved politics in Uttar Pradesh”.

But there would be no post poll alliance with either the BSP or the SP in the state, he said. In case the elections produced a hung house, the Congress’s “simple strategy” would be to “have a coalition with the poor and common people, not with any party”.

“Congress will stand on its own in this election and after that the Congress will play a significant role in the politics of UP,” he said. “Results for the Congress will be solid... people are looking towards the Congress. Wherever I am going people are saying that we were being fooled in the past 22 years.”

Caste, Rahul said, cannot be ignored in UP. “What I was trying to do by describing Sam Pitroda as a carpenter was to generate hope. I was trying to tell people that if a person from their community can transform the country then they can too,” he said.

Rahul waved aside the black flag protests against him by Baba Ramdev’s supporters. “Ramdev’s two-three people show black flags at every meeting. But I have to tell them that I have learnt from my grandmother and I am not afraid of anyone. They can throw shoes at me or show black flags but I will continue to work in this manner until UP changes... Main kisi se nahin darta.”