http://www.khaleejtimes.com/darticlen.asp?xfile=data/subcontinent/2008/April/subcontinent_April11.xml§ion=subcontinent&col=
Sonia slams Mayawati govt over Dalits' plight (IANS, The Times of India) 1 April 2008 KANPUR — Congress president Sonia Gandhi launched a broadside against Uttar Pradesh's ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) yesterday and brought son Rahul into the picture too as she exhorted her party to launch an agitation and said he too would go to jail if required. Sonia held the BSP responsible for the alleged plight of Dalits and backward classes in the state and accused it of corruption. "The government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has given millions and millions of rupees as funds to the Uttar Pradesh government but not enough has been done for the people. It is time to ask the Uttar Pradesh government to give an account of where this money was spent," she said at the concluding session of the two-day Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee convention here. "The Congress should start an agitation against the state government and be prepared to go to jail if required. If need be, Rahulji will go to jail with you," the Congress chief said. Sonia specifically mentioned how Rahul Gandhi, who represents Amethi in parliament, kept telling her that a lot of people had taken fake membership of the party. "We should get more and more active people into the party fold," she added. Rahul Gandhi had addressed the gathering earlier. "In Etawah (during his visit to the district on March 15), Dalits told me that (former prime minister) Indira Gandhi used to think about them, (BSP leader) Kanshi Ram used to think about them but today they have been betrayed. There is no one to look after their interests," he said. He said the Mayawati government had also ignored the interests of the backward classes in the state. This was a reiteration of his comments during his visit to Bundelkhand in January that only five per cent of the funds meant for the poor and backward were going to the intended beneficiaries. Earlier, Congress on Sunday assailed Uttar Pradesh CM Mayawati for rising levels of corruption but maintained an ambivalent position towards SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav. While the political resolution at the party conference in Kanpuralso attacked the BJP and SP, party functionary Digvijay Singh commended Mulayam's track record in fighting communal forces. Read together, the resolution and Singh's speech seemed to be an exercise in contradicting each other. While the resolution recalled Mulayam's "goonda raj", Singh said the Congress was open to considering alliance proposals from a political party which had fought communal forces. "We are open to alliance with anyone who can keep communal forces at bay," Singh said, speaking on the resolution. Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav yesterday ruled out any truck with the Congress. "The Congress party is not our enemy and right now we have no plans for any sort of alliance with the Congress. Our main concern is to strengthen the United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA)," Yadav told reporters in Cochin. ------------------------------------ -- Subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a BLANK email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/joinYahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
