BELLARY, HYDERABAD, SEPT 1: In his first direct attack on Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today claimed that the ``people'' were apprehensive that the nation's security would be threatened if a person of foreign origin headed the government of the country.Addressing an election meeting in Bellary from where Sonia is contesting, Vajpayee also took exception to her filing nomination in a hush-hush manner saying India was a democracy and there was no need for such secrecy which even kept security personnel in the dark.Vajpayee said he had nothing personal against Gandhi ``but people think the nation's security is under threat if any foreigner becomes a Prime Minister. They feel it is against national interest and a change is required in the constitution (to bar it).''Vajpayee exuded confidence when he said that people know how to protect the country from foreign rule - just like the great Vijayanagar empire had done centuries ago.He said neither the BJP nor itsallies had raised the issue of Gandhi being a foreigner.``It were the people in Congress who raised the issue.Pawar, Sangma and Anwar raised the issue. Only then, others supported it,'' he told the meeting which was also addressed by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu.The opposition to Gandhi's leadership was not just confined to her being a foreigner, he said, it also related to her lack of experience. ``I sat in the Opposition for 40 years and have reached this position step by step,'' he said.The crowds at Vajpayee's rally would surely have set the Congress worrying. BJP strategists left nothing to chance to make today's rally a grand success. All three speakers, Vajpayee, Sushma Swaraj and B S Yediyurappa, spoke in Kannada while Telugu Desam chief N. Chandrababu Naidu did so in chaste Telugu. The crowd was delighted when Vajpayee first spoke in the local language. He later deployed a translator to ensure that his message reached the audience.If the PM quoted Pawar and Sangmaextensively to dwell on the foreigner issue, Naidu said the TDP was born to protect the Telugu pride and Sushma born to protect the Indian pride.Earlier, in Hyderabad, Vajpayee side-stepped the controversy surrounding the letters purportedly written by a Brigadier over the enhanced threat perception in Kargil saying that the documents ``were yet to be verified.'' On the allegations about the import of sugar from Pakistan, Vajpayee clarified that the PMO was no way concerned with it. ``Sugar was put on the OGL list and the traders have total freedom to import it at whatever price they decide,'' he pointed out. Asked how the government could allow import of sugar from Pakistan while fighting the country in Kargil, he replied: ``We were also eating sugar while fighting the enemy.''
