UP is regressing because it's being divided: Rahul Gandhi

At two separate rallies in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi accused state-level political players of engineering the Muzaffarnagar riots in which over 70 people lost their lives.

At a rally in Aligarh and then again in Rampur, Gandhi told a crowd of a few thousand that people wanted to live harmoniously.

During his visit to the Muzaffarnagar district following the recent riots there, he said in Aligarh, he heard first hand accounts from victims who said they harboured no enmity towards the other community. “They told me it was political  players who had executed this and destroyed them.” he said. “If Uttar Pradesh is regressing, it is because you are being divided”. In Rampur, he added that no politicians died in the riots, that it is the common man who suffers the brunt of politically motivated riots.

Hardselling the UPA government’s showcase schemes, specifically the food security law, Congress vice-president on Wednesday told a gathering of several thousand  people in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh that the Congress is committed to a rights-based approach to governing the people of India, which he called “Adhikaar ka Sarkaar”.

Exhorting the residents of Aligarh to voice their protest against the Samajwadi Party government’s opposition to the Food Security Act, Gandhi said, “You fought for your land rights in Bhatta Parsaul, now fight for your right to food.”

In Rampur, he said the Opposition tried its best to scuttle the Food Security Bill in Parliament. “Sonia ji, Manmohan ji fought for it. And the poor will benefit from it,” he said.

He also spoke briefly about farmers’ struggle for land rights and opposition to forced acquisition of land, in Bhatta Parsaul and elsewhere, referring to the UPA’s new law to provide better remuneration and rehabilitation for people affected by various projects requiring acquisition of their land.

Gandhi took potshots at the Samajwadi Party government too, with a comment about a laptop scheme in a state where electricity supply is erratic, at best.

Uttar Pradesh is seen as the most critical state for the Lok Sabha polls with its 80 Parliamentary constituencies. The Congress had an embarrassing defeat in the last UP Assembly elections, when its  campaign was led by Rahul Gandhi.

That defeat was clearly not on the day’s agenda, as Gandhi claimed the UPA would return to power in 2014, and do what it had done in 2004 and 2009, “build a government of the aam aadmi, the poor, the youth and women”. In Rampur, he reached out to women voters, stating that it was the Congress party that has implemented reservation for women. “States where women were given power have progressed,” he said.