CONGRESS BJP CHORE HAI NEW DELHI:The Congress on Thursday released a 55-page-long chargesheet on the alleged omissions and commissions of the Vajpayee regime. The chargesheet, outlined in a booklet christened “Vajpayee government: A Saga of Sins, Scams and Shame” alleges the nation had lost nearly Rs 45,057 crore in various scams involving several members of the Union cabinet, besides targeting Mr Vajpayee himself for his doublespeak on various issues. The Congress hopes the chargesheet will enable the party in ramming the point home that the BJP-led alliance had only taken the country backward. It chose to single out the ruling alliance’s poll mascot, Mr Vajpayee with twin objectives. One, to negate the ``feel good’’ and ``India Shining’’ campaigns engulfing the nation and, the second, to counter their criticism against their leader Sonia Gandhi. To reinforce their arguments, the Congress leaders specially designed a chapter called “Vajpayee’s flip- flops” where they charged that the Prime Minister frequently changed his stance on issues like Ayodhya, defence minister George Fernandes, communal riots in Gujarat and minorities. The stinging chargesheet was today simultaneously released in Delhi , Kolkata, Mumbai and Bangalore.“The Union government’s economic agenda was partisan, it communalised the polity, it sought to destroy the social fabric of India and political promises made have turned out to be false,” the chargesheet says. Observing that the prime minister was the keystone in a parliamentary system, the Congress leaders said Mr Vajpayee was squarely responsible for dereliction of his duties, allowing corrupt to go scot free and divisions in the society to continue. “Mr Vajpayee is responsible for all omissions and commissions of his colleagues,” Congress Working Committee member Pranab Mukherjee said. Releasing the chargesheet in New Delhi , Mr Mukherjee, who is the chairman of Congress manifesto drafting committee, said they have compiled all the allegations they have been levelling against the NDA government in the past five years. “One may say that there is nothing new in the chargesheet. We prepared it to reiterate what we were saying all these years. We will come out with more booklets like this,” he said. The first part of the chargesheet deals with the corruption charges against the ministers and the second chapter talked about neglect of farmers, growing unemployment, the government’s failure to protect the nation from external aggression and internal disturbances. “The exchequer had lost thousands of crores following various scams including Tehelka, UTI, Balco, Hudco, Centuar Hotel and defence scams including coffin scam during the six years rule of the Vajpayee led NDA government.” The BJP, however, trashed the document, terming it as “a stale and pale document, a hallucination without substance, a chargesheet without any new charge.’’ ``The Congress’ spin doctors are trying to revive the party and bring it out of the intensive care unit with expired medicines,’’ BJP president M Venkaiah said, while recalling that the Congress had been repeating the same charges over the past five years and had even stalled parliamentary proceedings over them. “They have learnt nothing from the outcome of the recent assembly elections. If they repeat the charges, they will have to repeat their repentance as well. The chargesheet will prove counter- productive,” the BJP chief said However, Mr Mukherjee wondered as to how anyone could talk of India Shining when 2009 farmers in Ananthapur district of Andhra Pradesh had committed suicide because of indebtedness. Accusing the NDA government of non- performance, Mr Mukherjee said the promises of the BJP-led NDA government have turned out to be false and its real agenda was exposed. The BJP rode to power with the help of “opportunistic” alliances and the sole aim of it was to retain power at any cost, he said adding that they would explain the people about the dismal performance of the NDA coalition. Contesting Mr Vajpayee’s claim on generating 8.4 million jobs, the chargesheet said: “Mr Vajpayee and his government have chosen to juggle figures rather than present a comprehensive employment generation plan.” Source: The Economic Times
Posted on: Sun, 21 Jul 2013 07:10:40 +0000
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