Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi at an election meeting in Panipat, Haryana
Congress vice president
Rahul Gandhi today launched a scathing attack on opposition BJP over its "double-standard" attitude towards corruption and attempt to "divide the society on communal lines".
Addressing an election rally this afternoon, Mr Gandhi, referring to re-induction of tainted former Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa into BJP, said the opposition leaders rake up the corruption issue in states other than those ruled by themselves.
"They (BJP leaders) go to Karnataka and give big speeches there. They bring Yeddyurappa, who was the Karnataka Chief Minister and remained in jail, to stage and then say they are against corruption...," Mr Gandhi said while canvassing for party state unit president and candidate from Sirsa Lok Sabha seat Ashok Tanwar.
"...then they go to Chhattisgarh where mining mafia rules and say we are against corruption, but they cannot see their own Chief Minister and ministers there. Then they go to Madhya Pradesh and say we are against corruption, then cannot see their corruption. Then they go to Gujarat where three cabinet ministers spent jail term, but they cannot see corruption there... Rest of the places they see corruption," he said. (
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Mr Gandhi said unlike the BJP his party took action against corrupt politicians. "Wherever we see corruption, we take action," he said.
The Congress vice president then targeted BJP for trying to divide the people on religious lines.
He alleged that BJP's "divisive" policy was responsible for spoiling the country's secular fabric, while stressing that Congress's ideology was to unite the people irrespective of caste, creed and religion.
Mr Gandhi said wherever they (BJP leaders) go, they breed hatred among people of different religions.
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Yeh aapko aapas mein ladate hain, Hindu ko Muslim se ladayange (They make you fight each other, pit Hindus against Muslims)," he said, and referred to the attack of BJP ally Shiv Sena activists in Mumbai on migrant workers from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
"We take everybody along, be it Sikhs, Hindu or Christians or Muslims... This is our politics. We do not play politics of hatred or politics of division, we play politics of love because we know nation grows when everybody is taken along," he said.