We will defeat terrorism and overcome poverty,' says Rahul Gandhi

Udhampur (Jammu), Nov.29 : Asserting that the nation will defeat terrorism and at the same time will try to overcome the poverty, Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi said on Friday that the terror attacks in Mumbai were aimed at dividing and scaring people.

"The more they (terrorists) tried to divide us, the more we will get united and the more they tried to scare us, the more we become stronger," he said, while addressing an election rally in Udhampur district of Jammu and Kashmir.

He rejected BJP's "soft on terror" charges against the UPA government and said "the Congress-led UPA has been doing it both together --fighting terror and simultaneously ensuring development." Making a dig at BJP, the congress leader accused the saffron party of failing to "give positive dreams and visions" to the people.

He referred to former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's contribution to development of IT sector and claimed: "the BJP opposed it initially but when they came to power, they also followed it." On the Indo-US nuclear deal, Gandhi said the BJP has been criticizing it without realising that nuclear power generation in the country is vital for development.

Lauding Ghulam Nabi Azad for his contribution during his tenure as chief minister of the state, the AICC general secretary said Azad buried terrorism under the carpet and took the state towards the path of "peace, progress and development".

Azad, Union Minister for Water Resources Saifuddin Soz and Minister of State in the Prime Minister's office Prithvi Raj Chauhan also addressed the rally.

Earlier, Gandhi campaigned in the border district of Kupwara amid tight security hours before the electioneering for the third-phase of assembly elections ended. By Tahir Nadeem Khan

ANI