Bansi govt has failed on all fronts: Sonia
From Jatinder Sharma
Tribune News Service

ROHTAK, Oct 12 — The Congress President Mrs Sonia Gandhi has said the Haryana government has failed on all fronts and had lost the right to stay in power.

In a scathing attack on the Haryana Government, she said that law and order has collapsed and people were feeling insecure. Kidnappings, dacoities and extortions have become rule of the day. Excesses on women and the weaker sections were on the increase.

Mrs Gandhi was addressing a state-level Congress workers meeting here today. This was her first visit to Rohtak after the last parliamentary elections. She spoke in Hindi for 15 minutes from a written text.

Mrs Gandhi said Haryana had progressed by leaps and bounds during the Congress regime, but all development activities have come to a grinding halt after the HVP-BJP came to power in the state.

She said corruption was rampant in every walk of life and the ruling alliance appears unconcerned about people's problems. The growing unemployment among the youth was a matter of serious concern, but the government had shown indifference to the issue.

The shortage of power and water has hit the industry and the agriculture sector. The labour was disappointed and suffering because of the non-governance of the ruling alliance.

"The Bansi Lal Government will have to go in the next elections", she said amidst thunderous applause from the party workers.

Referring to her visit to certain villages in Jind district, Mrs Gandhi said she was pained to see the plight of the farmers and the people who were living under miserable conditions. She conveyed her sympathies to the families of the farmers who had committed suicide due to indebtedness.

The Congress President regretted that the panchayats were not being allowed to function. The panchayats, she reminded, work for the welfare of the people and not for the governments. These institutions were the backbone of democracy, she emphasised.

Mrs Gandhi described the performance of the Vajpayee Government as dismal. The BJP, she said, had promised to provide a fearless and a good government, but it was engaged in the infighting among its alliance partners. As a result the people were suffering and prices of essential commodities were sky-rocketing.

She said that because of the wrong policies of the Vajpayee government, the country was passing through a critical phase. The communal forces were raising their ugly head which was posing a threat to the national unity and integrity.

Although all the big-wigs of the Pradesh Congress Committee were present, none of them, except Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda was allowed to speak. Mr Hooda, too, confined himself to his welcome address.

Earlier, on her arrival, Mrs Gandhi unfurled the Congress flag and the Sewa Dal volunteers presented guard of honour. She exhorted the party workers to forget their differences in the interest of the party.

Mrs Gandhi advised the PCC chief, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, to constitute a committee to monitor the implementation of the Pachmarhi resolutions. She said the party would give preference to rural and agricultural development. "It will not hesitate to fight for the redressal of the farmers problems", she said.

Relief for kin of farmers
From Yoginder Gupta
Tribune News Service

BAILAKHERA (Narwana), Oct 12 — The Congress will give compensation to the families of those farmers and agriculture labourers who had allegedly committed suicide due to indebtedness accentuated by repeated crop failures in the past few years.

This was announced by the AICC President, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, here today, while talking to newsmen after meeting the families of about 25 such farmers. She said her party would compensate such families at its own level, adding that the compensation would not be as much as the Congress would have paid if it had been in power.

Later Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar, AICC Secretary, told newsmen that the exact amount of compensation and the mode of payment was yet to be worked out.

Mrs Gandhi said the rural indebtedness was a serious problem which needed to be studied in depth. The Congress had deputed its men to conduct a survey and identify the affected families. The party would also put pressure on the government. The problem of indebtedness was widespread in the country and was not confined to Haryana alone, she added.

When a newsman pointed out that the problem had been identified and publicised only by the Haryana Krishak Samaj President, Mr Shamsher Singh Surjewala, while several other Congressmen in Haryana had said no such problem existed, Mrs Gandhi quipped: "Even Krishak Samaj people are our men." The Haryana Congress President, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, intervened to clarify that the PCC had asked the district units to investigate the problem after it received a copy of the Samaj's report.

Mrs Gandhi said at the Pachmarhi session of the party leaders, it was decided to ask the state units to look into the problem of indebtedness in their areas so that an action plan could be chalked out by the party.

Clad in a south Indian white and greenish check cotton saree, with "palu" covering her head, Sonia threw arrangements made by security agencies and the organisers to wings and went up to each and every 70-odd affected families seated in a specially cordoned enclosure in three villages of Bailakhera, Karamgarh and Amargarh.

The organisers had planned that Mrs Sonia Gandhi would sit in a separate enclosure and each family would walk up to her to tell her their tale of woes. But she went to the enclosures meant for the families and talked to them. She asked pointed questions in Hindi which was much less accented than what it was when she visited Haryana to campaign during the parliamentary elections held in May this year.

She asked the affected families about the amount of loan, the size of their land holdings, help from the government, if any; the number of children left orphaned by those who committed suicide, and how the suicide was committed. Wherever she had any doubts about the claims made by anyone, she checked up with Mr Aiyer who was carrying all relevant details supplied to him by Mr Randeep Singh Surjewala, the MLA son of the Krishak Samaj President, in whose Assembly constituency the three villages fall.

Though Mrs Gandhi was able to understand most of what the affected families, whenever she had difficulty with Haryanvi words, Mr Hooda and the AICC General Secretary, Mrs Meira Kumar, came to her help. Mr Surjewala, the main organiser was a silent spectator. And so was the former Chief Minister, Mr Bhajan Lal.

In Bailakhera (as in the other two villages) the security agencies had allowed only the affected families to enter the meeting venues. The other villagers who had turned out in large numbers, were kept away by the police. The Bailakhera crowd got restless and raised anti-Sonia slogans when it felt that she would drive away in her motorcade without giving them an opportunity to have a glimpse of her. However, Sonia stepped out of her car at the gate of a school where the programme was held. She not only waived at the crowd but also walked towards it. The crowd went wild and raised pre-Sonia slogans.

For the people of Narwana and its surrounding villages Sonia's visit was reminiscent of an impromptu exercise done by her husband on January 21, 1987, when he was the Prime Minister.

Replying to a newsman's query at Jind Mrs Gandhi said the party was keeping its options open on taking support from the AIADMK.

She was asked to comment on the statement of the AIADMK chief, Ms Jayalalitha, that the options of the AIADMK were open on the issue of extending support to the Congress if the latter decided to form a government.

Mrs Gandhi remarked: "Our options are open too."

Mrs Gandhi said she would definitely visit Punjab also where the problems of indebtedness was as acute as it was in Haryana. However, she said, she would not be able to give the exact date of her proposed visit to Punjab right now.