For the first time, Congress president Sonia Gandhi mounted an attack on the Aam Aadmi Party on Sunday at a rally in New Delhi’s Ajmal Khan Park stating that a few people ‘making tall claims ran away in a few days’. She also singled out the BJP for preaching ‘politics of hatred and communalism’ and making big ‘false promises’.
Addressing a well-attended rally, she lashed out at AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal. Without naming Kejriwal she said: “A few people came with tall claims and ran away in few days. They do not know that running a government is not a child’s job.”
The Congress that lost its Delhi government to the emergence of the AAP is hoping not to perform as bad in the Lok Sabha elections. The Congress had won all the seven Lok Sabha seats during the 2009 elections.
Highlighting the achievements of Hakim Ajmal Khan, a freedom fighter, in whose honour the park has been named, the UPA chairperson said that Khan had always been a symbol of unity between two communities but a few people (BJP) are teaching ‘ideology of fanaticism’.
She said election is fight between two different ideologies. “The Congress ideology teaches love and quality and we always have goodwill for Opposition parties but out there some people who teach fanaticism and how to create conflict between two communities,” she said.
In a veiled attack on BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, Sonia said: “I am in politics to take the tradition of the Congress party forward. For me, it is more important to protect the Ganga-Jamuni Tahzeeb than going after power. But there are certain individuals and organisations who want to take the country into the direction of darkness and doom. But I have faith in the judgement of people and even this time you won’t make a mistake in taking the right direction and supporting the Congress.”
Sonia described the saffron party as a ‘divisive force’ and said that they would ‘ruin the country’.
Modi is contesting from the holy city of Varanasi, largely known for its Ganga-Jamuni Tahzeeb - which largely describes the sense of brotherhood between different religions.
The Congress chief also slammed the BJP for “raising the pitch over the issue of nationalism and patriotism”.
She questioned the tall claims of the BJP and AAP on nationalism. “The BJP and others (AAP) can only give speeches of nationalism and patriotism at public rallies, but the truth is patriotism flows in the veins of the Congress,” she roared. “If they want to learn about nationalism, they should learn from Congress people who scarified their lives.