In an unusually aggressive speech, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday asked voters to snap out of the “Maya-jaal” and vote for development.
Addressing a predominantly Muslim gathering in Moradabad on Friday, the Congress president blamed the non-Congress parties for spreading “hatred, terror and anarchy” in Uttar Pradesh.
“These are the parties that divide to rule and you should beware of such forces. It is the Congress that does not differentiate on basis of caste and religion. The BJP, BSP and SP filled their own coffers and it is because of them that UP has lagged behind. UP, at one time, was the glory of the nation and we must work towards regaining that glory,” she said.
Talking about all that the Congress had done for minorities, Mrs Gandhi said that it was the Congress that set up Sachchar Committee and later implemented its recommendations.
“For the first time, the Congress has set up a separate ministry for minority welfare. We raised the budget of the Maulana Azad Foundation, ensured easy loans for minorities and now we have given 4.5 per cent reservation to backward Muslims. Tell me which other party has done so much for minorities?” she asked.
The Congress president said that the centre had sent over `1 lakh crore for different schemes in Uttar Pradesh but all the money went in corruption and scams. “We have given maximum programmes for the deprived sections of society. For women, apart from reservation in panchayats, the Congress has introduced several health schemes but the benefit of all this obviously did not reach you,” she said.
Addressing the farmers, she said that the Congress had already given the loan waiver scheme and it was because of corruption in the Mayawati regime that fertilisers did not reach farmers even though there was no shortage.
Mrs Gandhi said that in Uttar Pradesh, basic amenities like “bijli, pani and sadak” were missing.