Drop Gandhi surname, Rajnath to Sonia

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday launched a personal attack on Congress president Sonia Gandhi asking her to shun her surname if she does not believe in the existence of Lord Ram as Mahatma Gandhi did.

Training guns at the Congress on the Ram affidavit issue in connection with the Sethu Samudram project, BJP president Rajnath Singh said if Sonia Gandhi and her children do not have faith in Mahatma Gandhi, his beliefs and in Lord Ram, then they should not use his name along with their names.

Mahatma Gandhi's "political vision was Ram Rajya while his spiritual vision was Raghupati Raghav Rajaram" and his ultimate belief and the last words were 'Hey Ram', Rajnath remarked.

"If Lord Ram did not exist, then it means the preachings of Gandhiji were all wrong. The Congress president has Gandhi in her surname. Her children also carry Gandhi surnames. Then I think they should reconsider," he said.

Rajnath's comments at a meeting of the BJP's peasant wing Kisan Morcha came a day after the Congress chief spoke passionately about the relevance of Gandhi in her address to the United Nations General Assembly on the occasion of his 138th birth anniversary.

Rajnath also sought to know from the Congress that if Lord Ram did not exist then whether the Father of the Nation's strong belief in Ram Rajya was fake and deceit. "Congress has no answer to this," he added.

Rajnath also attacked Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leaders for their comments against the Supreme Court and blasphemous remarks about Lord Ram and alleged the Congress has a role in the regional party's aggressive stance.

"Neither British rulers nor Mughal emperors questioned the existence of Lord Ram. But this government is doing it. They are doing what even Aurangazeb and Clive had not done," he added.

The BJP president also lashed out at the Manmohan Singh government on issues like "price rise, Muslim appeasement and the worsening "internal security situation" in the country and predicted that mid-term poll was round the corner.

"Taking into consideration the present political situation, we can surely say that the country is heading for mid-term polls. This government is not going to last long," he claimed.

On the economic front, he criticised the United Progressive Alliance government for "blindly aping" American economic theories and underscored the need for developing an independent policy.

After independence, India followed the planned economic policy of Russia and since its collapse it has moved towards the US, he said and noted that the country cannot progress by ignoring its key agricultural sector.

He ridiculed Home Minister Shivraj Patil for "predicting" the possibility of terror strikes all the time and asked him to take "effective measures" to tackle the scourge rather than just talking about it.

The previous BJP government had enacted a tough anti- terror law Prevention of Terrorism Act. "This government neither has the intention nor the strong will to tackle terrorism," he added.