BJP has no respect for secularism, democracy: Sonia Gandhi at rally in Jammu

Jammu: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday attacked the Narendra Modi government for not taking any action against its minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti for her objectionable comments and alleged that it has no respect for democracy and was working to divide people on communal lines.

"No action was taken against the Sadhvi for using objectionable language," Gandhi said while addressing a poll rally here on Wednesday.

"They (BJP) want people to fight on the name of religion. BJP has no respect for secularism and democracy. Their sadhus and sadhvis are dividing the society by using objectionable language against a particular community," she alleged.

Gandhi said that her party was committed for the "one time resettlement" of the refugees and the party was also working to give plots of land to border residents.

"We are committed to provide an honourable living condition to the Kashmiri Pandits and other migrants. We will work for the weaker section of the society, Dalits, minorities and women. Will work for their empowerment," she said.

She accused the Centre of increasing corruption in the country by diluting the Right to Information Act.

"To fight corruption, Congress gave common men a tool in the form of Right to Information Act. The act was meant to check and stop corruption, however, since coming to power the BJP government is weakening the act to benefit the corrupt and increase the corruption in the country."

Gandhi alleged that the BJP was "trapping" the voters by making promises that they will never fulfil after coming to power in the state.

"They make big promises which they don't fulfil. Before elections they show green pastures to the people but when they come to power they forget all those promises," Gandhi said.

The Congress leader said that 'ache din'(good days) promised by the BJP before coming to the power were still awaited by the people of the country.

"They always take a U-turn on their promises, they had promised to bring back the black money in 100 days and deposit Rs 15 lakh each in the account of every citizen, but now after coming to power they are not even disclosing the names of the people who hold black money," she said.

Terming the Modi-led government of being "anti poor" she said, "During the UPA government we had made sure that the life saving drugs and other drugs meant for patients with critical illnesses are sold at a cheaper price.

"But to benefit the big business holders this government has increased the prices of those medicines."

She said that while the BJP-led government on the one hand has reduced the Minimum Selling Price (MSP) for the farmers on the other it has increased the cost of seeds and fertilizers.

Expressing solidarity with the victims of cross-border firing, Gandhi said that her party understands their pain.

"I am worried about the innocent people, police personnel and security force personnel getting killed by the firing from the Pakistani side. We understand their pain and do remember their sacrifices," she said.

The Congress president said that the decision to support the NC government in Jammu and Kashmir was taken to keep the communal forces at bay.

"It was a compulsion to enter into coalition with the National Conference as we could not do much of development. "When we will come to power, we will implement the food security act in the state which we could not do earlier because of the coalition compulsion," she said.

Gandhi said that after coming to power her party will set up two regional development councils for Jammu and Kashmir.

While appealing for votes for the party candidates she said that Congress was working for communal harmony in the state.

Earlier, speaking at the rally, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad, said,"BJP always exploited the issue of Article 370 but now they have given up the issue.

"Earlier, they used this issue to create a divide between the Hindus of Jammu and Muslims of Kashmir."