Rahul Gandhi is your future, PM tells UP as campaign hots up

The Prime Minister’s reference to Rahul comes days after he called the late Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao a “sanyasi” in politics. Rahul had earlier taken a swipe at Rao, saying if any member of the Gandhi family had been active in 1992, the Babri Masjid would not have been demolished.

Urging people to change the Samajwadi Party government, Singh said it was time to make the backward state the “new Uttar Pradesh”.

“Let’s make a new Uttar Pradesh, just like (late Prime Minister) Rajiv Gandhi dreamt of making a new India 20 years ago,” he said, seeking votes for the Congress ahead of the third phase of polls scheduled for April 18.

Stating that the state had undergone a sea change in the last 15 years, Singh lamented that non-Congress governments had only shed blood “in the name of temples and mosques”, shattering the peace of Uttar Pradesh.

“Youths did not get jobs and there was no peace and prosperity during these 15 years,” he said. Pointing out that unemployment was increasing in Uttar Pradesh, he took a dig at the ruling Samajwadi Party, saying its unemployment allowance was not the answer. “Youths don’t need an unemployment allowance.

They need jobs,” he said.

Leaders of non-Congress governments, Singh said, were only hankering for power with their family members. “They only ruled for themselves and their family members.” This, he said, had resulted in poverty, unemployment, misery of farmers and a deteriorating law and order situation. Children, Dalit women and the common man were not secure and politics had made deep inroads into police affairs, claimed Singh.

For peace and good governance to return to the state, people must realise “this can only be done by the Congress,” he said.

Stating that the UPA government at the Centre had sanctioned schemes worth crores of rupees for Uttar Pradesh, the PM said that the Samajwadi Party government had no interest in implementing these schemes. “This is being done so that people should not come to know that such good schemes are being run under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi,” he said.

Trying to woo Muslim votes, Singh said his government was ready to bear all expenses for teaching Urdu under the new 15-point programme for the uplift of Muslims. “We want Muslim children to get Urdu education as far as possible. Our government is ready to bear all expenditures in this regard,” Singh said.

Noting that minorities account for a sizeable portion of the population in Uttar Pradesh, he said the backward condition of Muslims had come to light in the Sachar Committee’s report. For the betterment of Muslims, the UPA government, he said, had taken several steps and the 15-point programme was being implemented. The government, he said, would also provide bank loans to Muslims.

—(With Agencies)