Cong hits out at BJP for attack on Rahul,PM

New Delhi, Apr 17 (UNI) In a frontal attack on the BJP, the Congress today charged the party with "communalising the politics of the country, distoring history and belittling the contribution of the Congress and the Nehru family to making of modern India." "The outrageous tone in the attacks on Mr Rahul Gandhi and on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his laudatory comments about Mr Gandhi's future as a leader are in tune with the BJP's standard politics," Congress Spokesman Devendra Prasad Dwivedi said.

He told mediapersons here that the BJP had injected "hate-based political rhetoric and misplaced confrontation" into the election campaign in Uttar Pradesh and political discourse at the national level.

Mr Dwivedi noted that Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru and Mrs Indira Gandhi had "provided stewardship to the country for a good thirty three years and the five years of Mr Rajiv Gandhi's memorable leadership made it thirty eight years of a historic legacy which has no parallel in the democractic history." "The nation witnessed the sacrifice of the lives of Indiraji and Rajivji. Theirs is a legacy of which the entire nation is proud," the Spokesman said. "For the BJP to use the term dynasty for that heritage is to betray intellectual bankrupcy and to do violence to history," he added.

Mr Rahul Gandhi, was fully justified in "bringing that legacy to the collective memory of the people of Uttar Pradesh" and also the country, Mr Dwivedi asserted.

"The pathological hatred of the Sangh Parivar against the Nehru family and the Congress party was central to its politics during the life time of Mr Nehru,Mrs Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi," he noted, adding now Mrs Sonia Gandhi Rahul Gandhi are its targets.

The Spokesman attacked the BJP for saying that the Prime Minister was trying to impose Mr Rahul Gandhi on the people of Uttar Pradesh.

"This is ludicrous and reflects an authritarian mindset. The future leader of UP and India will be as always decided by people," he noted.

UNI