Hyderabad:
Called upon to do damage control over party patriarch LK Advani's thinly-veiled criticism of
Narendra Modi over the weekend, BJP president
Rajnath Singh today said there were internal rifts in the ruling Congress, not in his party.
Mr Singh is in Hyderabad to induct an Independent MLA into the BJP this evening and at a press conference quickly dismissed the Advani-Modi episode, tearing at length into the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre for celebrating the completion of four years in office in this term last month. "What is the UPA celebrating for? Are they celebrating the increase in prices? Or are they celebrating corruption?" asked Mr Singh.
Even as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh hosted a dinner party for the UPA's allies to mark his government's fourth birthday on May 22, the BJP had pledged to highlight what it calls the failures of UPA 2 in the months leading up to the general elections.
At that dinner, Dr Singh had released a "report card for the people", that listed an "improved economy and more inclusive growth" as the UPA's key achievements. Rajnath Singh challenged that saying, "After this government has come in, fiscal and current account deficit have gone up, the value of the rupee compared to the US dollar has gone down. On every front, economic and diplomatic, this government is a failure."
He slammed the Centre for the 20-day stand-off over a platoon of Chinese troops setting up camp in Indian territory in April and said, "China has encircled India...Pakistan, a small country, comes in, decapitates the body of our soldier and returns a mutilated body...Whether it is Burma or Bangladesh, we don't have cordial relations with anyone."
And he accused the Centre of "politicising" the Maoist attack on a convoy of cars carrying Congress leaders in BJP-ruled Chhattisgarh last week, and put the blame for the rise of Naxalism on the central government. The Congress has accused the Raman Singh government in Chhattisgarh of providing inadequate security to the Congress leaders.
Flanked by senior party leader from the state Venkaiah Naidu, Rajnath Singh promised Congress-ruled Andhra Pradesh that if his party was voted to power in the state, "we will ensure a separate state of Telangana, that's our commitment."
The BJP has never ruled Andhra Pradesh where it has three seats in the current Assembly. Elections are scheduled in the state next year around the same time as the national elections. The opposition party lost the only southern state it has ruled - Karnataka - to the Congress last month.