Sonia calls for zero tolerance to corruption at Allahabad rally

Proclaiming zero tolerance towards corruption, Congress President Sonia Gandhi said on Thursday that her party always believed in dealing with corruption with a heavy hand.

Without taking any names, but in an obvious reference to the sacking of former telecom minister A Raja and Commonwealth Games chief Suresh Kalmadi from a party post, the Congress president pointed out, "Every time any corruption-related issue has come to our notice, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government has always shown promptness in taking action."

She was addressing a huge rally organised in Allahabad to mark the commencement of second phase of yatras initiated by her son and Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi as part of the party's 125th anniversary celebrations. The first yatra was launched at Ambedkar Nagar in Uttar Pradesh on April 14, coinciding with the birth anniversary of Babasaheb Ambedkar.

"The Congress has never spared anyone indulging in corrupt practices because we know that corruption is the worst malady facing our nation and is therefore also the biggest hurdle in the path of our development," she added.

Urging all opposition parties to follow course, Sonia said, "I would like to appeal to all other political parties to adopt the same sternness in dealing with corruption as the Congress-led UPA government has been doing."

Evidently, with very little to boast of in the aftermath of the party's rout at the Bihar state assembly election on Wednesday, Sonia preferred to keep the spotlight on whatever the UPA was doing in the name of good and clean governance. Rahul was however conspicuous by his absence.

Training her guns at the Mayawati government, she went on to add, "Take the case of Uttar Pradesh where corruption was posing the biggest obstacle in development. Corruption in UP is rampant at all levels, law and order is at its lowest ebb, thereby creating an environment where people are not safe and the common man is oppressed." She also flayed UP for "poor availability of power and acute shortage of drinking water."

Highlighting the Centre's serious concern about development, Sonia emphasised how the funds released by the central government towards various development schemes and projects failed to reach the target beneficiary on account of large-scale pilferage in UP. "It is the right of every citizen to know about the use of every penny spent on development programmes and everyone must assert that right," she said.