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Centre's incompetence cost the lives of jawans, says Sonia

Syed Firdaus Ashraf in Pune

"Indians have never supported traitors. History has proved this time and again," said Congress president Sonia Gandhi as she launched the Congress election campaign in Maharashtra at Bhor, 100km from Baramati, hometown of Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar.

"Some people stabbed us in the back for personal gain. They have betrayed the Congress party. Earlier too they had betrayed Mrs Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi," she said, without referring to Pawar by name.

Gandhi, who was supposed to reach Bhor by 12.30pm, was delayed by two hours. Arrangements for the meeting were terrible as hordes of cars, trucks and jeeps jammed the roads leading to Bhor where there was just a narrow lane leading to the venue of the public meeting.

Even Suresh Kalmadi, Congress member of the Rajya Sabha, was stuck in the chaos and his secretary, Suresh Deurkar, had to alight from his car and shout at the Congress workers for creating chaos.

Many others also abandoned their vehicles and walked up to 2km to reach the venue.

The ground was covered in muck and it was raining cats and dogs. Many women took shelter under plastic sheets. Others just got drenched.

Around 2.15pm, Sonia Gandhi's chopper became visible on the horizon and the assembled crowd began shouting, 'Sonia Gandhi zindabad [long live]'.

Congressmen claimed an attendance of nearly 100,000 people, but the crowd seemed to be closer to half that figure considering the size of the ground. Police put the size of the crowd at 30,000.

The Pune-Satara highway was virtually taken over by the vehicles of Congress workers and every car seemed to be sporting the Congress flag or Sonia Gandhi's picture. The villagers appeared surprised to see so many cars visiting their village.

Gandhi stunned everyone by beginning her speech in Marathi. But after speaking three sentences in the local language, she switched to Hindi.

Referring to the mediaeval Maratha warrior-king Shivaji, she said, "Chhatrapati Sheevaji (sic) Maharaj ki jitni bhi tareef ki jaye kam hai." She hailed him as a secular ruler who never discriminated against his subjects on grounds of religion or caste. "But those who invoke Sheevaji's name are dividing the country," she said, in an indirect attack on the Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party, Maharashtra's ruling parties.

"The minorities are being attacked in Maharashtra and Gujarat which is ruled by them. They don't bother to respect the secular ethos of India," she said. "And the Congress wants a government which can contribute to all the sections of the society."

Criticising the BJP-led government, she said the BJP had completely mishandled the Kargil issue. If the central government had been alert, the intrusion would never have taken place, she said. But the government did not bother to see that the borders are safe. And Pakistan took advantage of this weakness of the government.

"Had the Centre been alert, the lives of our jawans would have been saved," she said, amidst applause.

"Now you have a chance to change all this mess. I am proud to say that whatever progress the nation has made in the last 50 years has only been under Congress rule. So I appeal to the voter to consider their vote for the Congress party." And so saying she ended her speech in 20 minutes by shouting Jai Hind thrice.

Kalmadi, Congress general secretary Madhavrao Scindia and former Union home minister S B Chavan were scheduled to speak, but their speeches were cancelled because of the rain.

The two others who got a chance to speak were local MLA Anant Thopte and Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Pratap Bhosale.

Earlier Report

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