Dehradun:
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi today escalated his party's attack against the BJP by accusing it of practicing "politics of blood" by pitting one religion against another to come to power at any cost.
"It (BJP) practices politics of blood. They don't see anything but power... power at any cost. They can pit communities and castes against each other, they won't hesitate in spilling blood if they find it necessary to usurp power," the Congress Vice President said at a rally in Dehradun.
Mr Gandhi said, on the contrary, the Congress believed in mitigating the pain of people, even if may fall "short" of expectations at times and that it alone has the farsighted vision that can set the country firmly on the path of development.
In a frontal attack on the BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, Mr Gandhi said the Gujarat Chief Minister was speaking about corruption even though he never appointed a Lokayukta in his state and did so only after a judicial order.
"There is still one man in Gujarat who does not come under Lokayukta. All others are under it but not that man", he said in an apparent reference to Mr Modi.
Hitting out at the BJP for not cooperating with the government in the passage of pending anti-corruption bills in Parliament, he said, "There are six anti-corruption bills. I spoke about them in media. Our leaders spoke to their (BJP) leaders. They kept silence... The government is ours. We are trying to push those bills in the form of ordinances."
He tore into Mr Modi for his pitch for a "Congress-free" India and invoked religious texts and figures like Gita, Koran and Buddha among others to imply that the Congress represented the idea of a secular India which could not be removed.
"We are speaking about thoughts. Their leader says obliterate Congress... They should read Gita. They don't. It says work for others with humility... Buddha could not be eradicated. Nor could Ashoka and Akbar... Congress cannot be erased. We will fight. We will win. We will form government," he said.
"They (BJP) don't see Yeddyurappa in Karnataka. They don't see corruption in Gujarat, in Chhattisgarh, in Madhya Pradesh... They don't talk about the disabled, women and youth. All they say is make our man Prime Minister. It will take care of everything," he said.