Congress slaps chargesheet on NDA govt

Alleges country lost Rs 50,000 crore in scams in 5 years

The Congress today collated all the scams that have occurred during the tenure of the Vajpayee government in a bid to puncture the "India Shining" campaign and issued a chargesheet against the NDA government alleging that its rule saw the country losing Rs 50,000 crore in scams and hundreds of farmers committing suicide.

Titled "Vajpayee government: a saga of sins, scams and shame", the 55-page chargesheet accused the NDA government of miserably failing on all fronts, including national security, employment and agriculture.

Releasing the chargesheet, senior party leader Pranab Mukherjee and Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit wondered how anyone could talk of "India Shining" when 2,009 farmers had committed suicide in the Ananthapur district of Andhra Pradesh alone because of indebtedness.

Stating that the country lost Rs 49,057 crore because of various scams, including Tehelka, UTI, Balco, Hudco and the coffin scam, during the rule of the Vajpayee-led NDA government, Mukharjee said the Tehelka scam shocked the nation as the then BJP President Bangaru Laxman was caught on tape accepting cash and asking more money in US dollars.

The tape also captured the then Samata Party President Jaya Jaitley talking about money for allegedly facilitating a defence deal, at the Defence Minister's official residence, which, Mukharjee said indicated that Jaya Jaitely had used George Fernandes's influence.

Referring to the plight of the farmers, discrimination in allocation of food grains to states suffering from drought, welfare of SCs/STs and the Woman's Reservation Bill, Mukherjee said the NDA government had no plans to revive public investments in agriculture.

The party also chargesheeted the Vajpayee government for communalising the education system saying that under the NDA government the education system had been pushed into a state of confusion as the government pushed RSS ideology and views into textbooks.

"The government's economic agenda is partisan, it communalised the polity, it sought to destroy the social fabric of India and political expediency was its guiding ideology", Mukhkerjee said about the NDA.

The promises it made "have turned out to be false, its real agenda stand exposed", he added.

He said the BJP rode to power with the help of "opportunistic" alliances, "the sole aim of which was to retain political power at any cost".

"Even the security of this country was compromised. Tehelka and other scams demonstrated that the NDA government was immersed neck-deep in corruption. The people of India want change. They want a government that performs", he said.

He contested the Vajpayee claim on generating 8.4 million jobs. The chargesheet said "Vajpayee and his government have chosen to juggle figures rather than present a comprehensive employment generation plan".

When asked if the Congress government would investigate misdeeds of the NDA, he said: "We'd like to have it investigated.... Wherever it is necessary".

He denied suggestions that the Congress was shying away from taking the names of Ranjan Bhattacharya, the foster son-in-law of Vajpayee, and Brajesh Mishra, principal secretary to the Prime Minister.

Mukherjee said that Bangaru Laxman, who had to quit as BJP chief in the wake of tehelka expose, had mentioned Bhattacharya and Mishra as using their influence during dealings of various key ministries.