28.4.14

A Big Heart & Compassion needed to run India


Leading the Congress’s attack on Narendra Modi, Priyanka Vadra took a jibe at the BJP PM nominee and said it took a big heart and compassion, not a 56-inch chest, to run India.
Stepping up the attack on the saffron brigade, Priyanka, while campaigning for mother Sonia Gandhi in Rae Bareli, said, “It doesn’t take brute force to run this country; it takes internal and moral strength, even a determination to lay one’s life for the unity of the country.”
At a rally in Gorakhpur, Narendra Modi had said it took a 56-inch chest – like his – to convert UP into Gujarat. The swipe, then largely aimed at Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, was picked up by Priyanka on Sunday and used to Congress’s advantage. Referring to the use of brute force, Priyanka also made a quiet, but arched reference to the 2002 Godhra riots.
Priyanka called India a country of Mahatma Gandhi, where tribals and Dalits had also laid their lives for the nation’s unity. She said it was this culture of unity that she had inherited. “This is the blood that flows through my veins,” she said. Repeatedly telling people, as she has over her campaign trails, to protect and preserve the culture of unity in India, Priyanka warned people of the divisive forces at work, out to spread hate and dive people on the lines of caste, religion and community.
She said, “Vote for development, but also think about strengthening this country. Don’t limit your vision; think of your sisters, the youth. What kind of country do you want? This is a country that believes in mutual coexistence; it needs a government that will keep them together.”
Building the momentum of the electoral campaign ahead of April 30 polls in Sonia’s constituency, the Congress star campaigner urged people to vote for the Congress.
Telling people about the drastic improvements that Sonia had brought to Rae Bareli, Priyanka said, “People have the power to lead political parties on the right path. Rahul and Sonia’s politics is about empowering your hands. Everyone in my family, from Jawaharlal Nehru downwards, knew we are nothing without the support of the people. You make us. You matter. Nothing else is of any consequence,” Priyanka, striking an emotional note with the electorate, said.


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