Rahul Gandhi attacks BJD, says funds not reaching people

Rahul Gandhi attacks BJD, says funds not reaching people Bhubaneswar, Feb 9 (IANS) Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi Sunday said the central government had been sending adequate funds to Odisha but they were not reaching the people.

Addressing a public meet at Bhatapada village near Cuttack, Gandhi said: "The money we send is being stolen."

"Your money is not reaching you. It's getting lost in between," he said.

The Congress leader said people in Odisha continue to remain poor despite the state being rich in mineral resources.

He also criticised the state government for complaining about the lack of central funds and said Rs.5,000 crore was still lying unspent with the government.

Gandhi also highlighted several burning issues concerning the state, including unemployment, mid-day meal scheme, chit fund scam, central rural job scheme scam and the Maoist problem.

He said as many as 3,500 farmers have committed suicide while there are about 10 lakh unemployed youths in the state.

"People in Odisha want to work but the state government does not provide them employment," he said.

He said 22 of the state's 30 districts have been affected by Maoist activities.

"Rs.60,000 crore worth of iron ore and manganese ore were looted... People should have benefited from this money but the benefit went to selected people, mining mafias," he said, criticising the government over the alleged mining scam.

He added that 20 lakh people were defrauded by the chit-fund scam in the state.

Earlier, hundreds of Congress workers and leaders greeted Gandhi and gave him a rousing welcome when he landed at the Biju Patnaik International Airport here on a two-day visit to the state.

Gandhi is scheduled to interact with party leaders and workers during his stay.

Like Father - Like son.

The following are some extracts from Eminent lawyer, Ram Jethmalani's article in the Sunday Guardian http://www.sunday-guardian.com/analysis/cementing-of-dynastic-democracy

Indira Gandhi was assassinated on 31 October 1984, at 9.20 a.m. and breathed her last at 10.50 a.m. Rajiv Gandhi was sworn in as Prime Minister later that same night. The omens were foul. Delhi had broken out into mob violence and a frenzy of communal riots, murdering, burning, and butchering innocent members of the Sikh community indiscriminately, all orchestrated and with the active participation of Congress Party stalwarts.

Rajiv Gandhi as Prime Minister was singularly lacklustre and mediocre.

In one of his debut speeches made during the Congress Plenary Session in Mumbai, he publicly acknowledged the systems of corruption in governance institutionalised by his mother and brother. "If Central government releases one rupee for the poor," he said, "only 10 paisa reaches them."

Rajiv Gandhi was instrumental in ushering in the telecom revolution with the help of Sam Pitroda whom he specifically brought over to India for the purpose in 1984.

Rajiv Gandhi's pretensions to his dream for India and modernity were completely exposed in his stand on the Shah Bano case, in which the Supreme Court ruled that Shah Bano be given alimony by her divorced husband. Muslim fundamentalists agitated that it was an encroachment in their Personal Law. Under their pressure, in 1986, the Congress, which had an absolute majority in Parliament at the time, passed an Act that nullified the Supreme Court's judgement in the Shah Bano case. This can only be seen as retrogressive obscurantism for short-term minority populism, that betrayed the welfare and protection of Muslim women in India. His colleague Arif Mohammad Khan had made a wonderful speech befitting a rational intellectual, that he was in favour of the Supreme Court position. Rajiv Gandhi pretended to applaud, but soon succumbed to fundamentalist elements and pushed through the infamous legislation nullifying the Supreme Court judgement.

This family has destroyed India and yet the Congress Party cannot find anyone to lead the party because its members are like crabs, pulling each other down.

They do not trust each other.