Naqvi flays Rahul's uttrances on Lokpal Bill

VARANASI: Terming Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi as the first 'political casualty' of Anna Hazare's anti-corruption crusade, Bharatiya Janata Party vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi advised him to change his speech writer, who wrote that instead of Lokpal Bill, he (Rahul) wanted a constitutional body on the lines of Election Commission to tackle the issues of corruption.

Talking to reporters at BJP office in Gulab Bagh on Sunday, Naqvi said Rahul Gandhi spoke only what was told or written by his advisers or speech writer. He said making such a suggestion in Parliament was surprising. Regarding the notices being issued to Anna Hazare's team members, he said: "These moves show the frustration in a government that is deep into corrupt practices."

Commenting on fresh revelations by Wikileaks on David Coleman Headley, the key planner of terrorist attack on Mumbai, Naqvi alleged that the UPA government proved again that it was befooling countrymen and also portraying a wrong picture of the country on the issue of terrorism. He said the fresh revelation by Wikileaks had exposed how the UPA government is giving concessions to the terrorists. The compromises being made by this government on the issue of terrorism were alarming.

Reacting on the increasing demands of abolition of capital punishment for terrorists, including the killers of late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, he said that no mercy should be shown to the terrorists. The people or the parties seeking mercy for terrorists should be asked to quit politics and go with terrorist groups.

Naqvi said that he was camping in UP for past five days to finalise the action plan for the forthcoming 'Jan Swabhimaan Yatra' that will expose the secret alliance of Bahujan Samaj Party, Samajwadi Party and Congress, which had been formed to patronise the corrupt practices of each other. He said that two yatras would commence in the state from Varanasi and Mathura simultaneously on October 13. Former BJP president Rajnath Singh and senior leader Kalraj Mishra would lead these yatras at Mathura and Varanasi, he said. Many senior leaders like Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti, Vinay Katiyar and Surya Pratap Shahi would take part in these yatras.

The yatra would cover 244 kms in the first phase which would end on October 22. The second phase of the yatra would begin in the state on November 13 and end at Lucknow on November 21. These yatras would cover 382 assembly areas. A Vijay Sankalp Samagam would be held at Lucknow on November 21.

He said that the basic objective of the yatras is to prepare an atmosphere to uproot corruption in UP.

Naqvi said that the list of 70 per cent candidates for next UP polls had been finalised. He made it clear that the party would contest elections without projecting any leader as chief ministerial candidate. He said that corruption would be only agenda of BJP's electioneering in the state.