Naidu lambasts Congress on Satyagraha politics

Ludhiana, Jan 31 (UNI) Lambasting the Congress for 'politicalising' the 'Satyagraha issue', BJP vice president Venkhaih Naidu today sought to remind the Congress leaders that the Satyagraha launched by Mahatama Gandhi was a national freedom movement.

''The manner in which the Congress was celebrating the centenary of the Satyagraha movement is an insult to the spirit of the freedom struggle and Gandhiji in particular", Mr Naidu said while addressind a media conference after addressing an election rally in support of BJP candidate Satpal Gosian from the Ludhiana West constiteuncy.

The Satyagraha movement did not belong to any party, it was a national movement launched from one platform, he said while pointing out that his party would raise this issue in Parliament in the Budget session. Earlier the Congress had generated a controversy on the 'Bande Matram' issue and now it was doing so on the Satyagraha movement, he added.

''The real face of the Congress has been exposed'', he said while claiming that Gandhji had appealed for the dissolution of the Congress party after Indian attained Independence. ''It is not the real Congress, but can be called Congress-I'', he added.

''Refering to what he called the appeasement policies of the Congress and the UPA, Mr Naidu said the annual budgets of the UPA or the Congress ''are nothing but communal budgets''. Concessions are always doled out to the Muslim community in budgets, he added.

Refering to assembly polls in Punjab, Uttarakand, Mizoram and Uttar Pradesh, Mr Naidu said that after the elections in these states are over, the political scenario in the country was bound to change.

''It will be tough for the UPA-government to survive'', he claimed.

The main issue in Punjab and the other three states would be rising prices of essential commodities. The UPA-government had failed to control the price rise, that had in turn encouraged black marketing, he added.

Claiming that the Congress government had failed miserably in Punjab, the BJP leader said it had failed to keep its promises and had not lived upto the aspirations of the people. Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh only followed the policy of political vendetta against his political opponents, he alleged while claiming that the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-BJP alliance would be voted to power in the border state.

Earlier in the election rally, Mr Naidu appealed to the electorate to throw out that Congress from Punjab and bring back the SAD-BJP.

UNI