BJP asks tough questions to Rahul Gandhi

Kawadia Bazar (UP), Apr 17: Irked by the statement of Rahul Gandhi claiming that the entire credit for Independence and creation of Bangladesh should go to the Gandhi family, the BJP has projected it as an attempt to insult millions of freedom fighters.

Addressing a series of public meetings in eastern UP going to polls on April 23, senior BJP leader Dr Murli Manohar Joshi said he would not have taken the ''immature and uneducated'' claims of Mr Gandhi seriously but for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's statement describing him as the ''future of UP''. ''We regard Dr Singh as the most educated Congress leader but this description certainly worries us,'' Dr Joshi remarked.

He said if the Nehru-Indira Gandhi family were to corner all the glory for itself forgetting the sacrifices of millions of leaders and workers who laid down their lives for achieving freedom, ''God should save UP from such a leader and the country from the Congress.'' The sacrifices of people like Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Asfaqulla Khan, Chandrashekhar Azad and Bhagat Singh mean nothing, he lamented.

Dr Joshi said it was the height of immaturity on the part of Mr Gandhi, also an MP from Amethi, to claim credit for creation of Bangladesh. Bangladesh was a result of struggle between the Bengali speaking East Pakistan and the West Pakistan and that country's inability to accept majority rule in democratic elections. India came into the picture when the refugees influx from Bangladesh to escape atrocities began and lent its support to ''Mukti Bahini'', the militant wing of the Bengali Pakistanis. ''If you claim credit for internal affairs of another country, this is height of imbecility,'' he said.

Holding India's first Prime Minister and Rahul's great grand father Jawahar Lal Nehru responsible for the partition of India against the wishes of Mahatma Gandhi, Dr Joshi said it was his family which created problems in Jammu and Kashmir when it could have been easily assimilated into Indian union like Hyderabad state into Andhra Pradesh and Jamnagar to Gujarat.

It was Mr Nehru who conceded British controlled Tibet to China when an Indian post was operating in that country and Indian Rupee was a valid currency. Indians could freely visit Manas Sarovar, the holiest Hindu pilgrimage centre. It was during his tenure that Akshai Chin was lost to China. ''When you claim credit for the family, you have to provide answers to lapses also,'' Dr Joshi said.

Dr Joshi addressed a series of meeting in the backward areas of UP including Karnail Ganj, Saragupur, Mujnana, Saltouva, Deoria and Itawah using a helicopter.

UNI