BJP practises politics of blood: Rahul

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Sunday accused the BJP of practising “politics of blood” by pitting one religion against another and one caste against another to come to power at any cost, escalating the Congress attack against the Opposition party.

Gandhi also said the UPA government was trying to bring anti-graft ordinances after the Opposition “blocked” the passage of these bills in Parliament.

“It (BJP) practises politics of blood. They don’t see anything but power... power at any cost. They can pit communities and castes against each other, they won’t hesitate in spilling blood if they find it necessary to usurp power.” Rahul said at a rally at the Parade Ground here. On the contrary, Rahul said Congress believed in mitigating the pain of people even if it may fall “short” of expectations at times and that it alone has the farsighted vision that can set the country firmly on the path of development.

In a frontal attack on the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, he said the Gujarat chief minister was speaking about corruption even though he never appointed a Lokayukta in his state and did so only after a judicial order. “There is still one man in Gujarat who does not come under Lokayukta. All others are under it but not that man”, he said in an apparent reference to Modi.

Hitting out at BJP for not cooperating with government in the passage of pending anti-corruption bills in Parliament, he said, “There are six anti-corruption bills. I spoke about them in media. Our leaders spoke to their (BJP) leaders. They kept silence... The government is ours. We are trying to push those bills in the form of ordinances.”
He tore into Modi for his pitch for “Congress-free” India and invoked religious texts and figures like Gita, Koran and Buddha among others to imply that Congress represented the idea of a secular India which could not be removed.

“We are speaking about thoughts. Their leader says obliterate Congress... They should read Gita. They don’t. It says work for others with humility... Buddha could not be eradicated. Nor could Ashoka and Akbar... Congress cannot be erased. We will fight. We will win. We will form government,” he said.

“They (BJP) don’t see Yeddyurappa in Karnataka. They don’t see corruption in Gujarat, in Chhattisgarh, in Madhya Pradesh... They don’t talk about the disabled, women and youth. All they say is make our man prime minister. It will take care of everything,” he said. 

On the issue of one rank one pension, Gandhi said the UPA government has fulfilled the long pending demand of armed forces.

“Armed forces were the biggest heroes in the rescue operations during the last year’s flash floods in Uttarakhand,” he said.