BJP against nuclear agreement, says Rajnath

Mandi, Nov 18: The BJP today launched a blistering attack on the UPA Government at the Centre on the issue of nuclear agreement with the US and said the agreement is against the interests of the country.

Addressing a public rally here to mark the formal inauguration of the party's campaign in the state, BJP president Rajnath Singh said the agreement was against the interest of the country as it prevented it from conducting nuclear experiments in future.

''What is even more surprising is that the government did not consult the main opposition party, the BJP, while taking such an important decision,'' he said.

Mr Singh said the Congress, which had ruled the country for major part after independence, had failed to develop it as several other countries that were liberated along with it were on the path of progress and development, while India had been left behind.

''The country made giant strides in all spheres of development during the NDA Government under former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee,'' he claimed.

He said it was under him that the nuclear tests were conducted without caring for the pressure from the US, which had threatened to stop financial aid to the country.

Notwithstanding the US pressure, the former prime minister decided to conduct the nuclear tests, unlike the present Congress Government, which was on its knees to appease the US, he asserted.

Criticising the central government for continuing with its appeasement policy of the Muslims, the BJP leader said it was following the Britishers policy of ''divide and rule'', which, he said, was against the interest of the country.

Referring to the widespread misery in the countryside and suicides by the farmers in Maharashtra, he said while life had become a misery for the rural and urban poor, the country's finance minister was claiming that the rise in Sensex was a sign of prosperity. Promising to provide a clean, honest and a transparent Government in Himachal after coming to power after the elections, he said the welfare and development of the people would be given top priority.

Referring to the presence of large number of people in the rally, Mr Singh said he could realise that the people were fed up with the present corrupt Congress Government.

''I can see a pro-BJP wave in the state,'' he asserted.

The BJP leader said corruption had reached such alarming proportions during the Congress in the state that a bag containing Rs 1.5 crore was reported missing from the chief minister's office.

''I too had remained chief minister of one of the biggest state's of the country, but what happened here in this hill state was unprecedented and most shameful.'' Expressing confident that the present state Congress would be voted out by the people, he said this would be followed at the Centre where the BJP would return to power.

''The BJP is the biggest party in the country and is in power in as many as ten states independently or in alliance with other parties,'' he claimed.

UNI