Camp: Faizabad

Date: 1-5-14

Time: 7: 00 PM

Full text of speech of Sonia Gandhi’s public rally at Faizabad, UP

The people of Ayodhaya have maintained the Ganga-Jamuna culture despite facing many difficulties. It is a land of belief and trust. It has

given a message to whole country on how to maintain peace and harmony by staying away from the communal politics. When you

believe there is only one God then development and growth takes place, people live with prosperity.

But there are people who think they are greater than the God. They are telling to make “Congress Mukt Bharat”. Why do they want this?

Because they fear Congress policies and determination which works for the welfare of the masses. They know that Congress won’t let to

make people fight. They will struggle to do the politics of hatred.

Congress spreads the message of secular values; the BJP and RSS truly know this. Many Congress leaders have sacrificed their lives to

maintain the brotherhood and harmony in the country. BJP and RSS have been against our secular ethos since independence. They

know that as far Congress remains active they can never impose their ideology on people and that they can never take democracy in

their hands. But I want to let them know the people of this country won’t let this happen.

We need to save our democracy from those who do the politics of religion. We should be alert against communal forces who always try

to grab power. You are witnessing the vulnerable condition of UP due to these parties.

Congress always committed to work for every section of the society. We always make sure that welfare does take place for those

sections which are ignored in the path of development. This is UPA government’s main aim.

We have made a special ministry for minority affairs. The UPA government also implemented most of the recommendations of the

Sachhar committee report. Financial aid has been provided to Maulana Azad Medical College and also giving the scholarships in large

numbers. We also established a Waqf Development Corporation to monitor the Waqf properties and to use it more effectively for the

welfare of minorities. For the upliftment of women, we launched a scheme called ‘Roshni’.

We also placed Communal Violence Bill in parliament to fight communal forces but opposition parties didn’t make it happen. We have

promised in our manifesto to get it passed and are fighting for it. We have enacted loan schemes for youth on easy terms.

We have given the rights to all sections of the society. We enacted Right to Education to ensure free education for all children up to 14

years of age. We have launched MNREGA scheme to guarantee a minimum 100 says jobs for the rural poor. We also revised Land

Acquisition Law to prevent all forceful land-grabbing and also to ensure adequate compensation for the lands acquired from our poor

farmers.

Nowadays, BJP’s main face Shri Narendra Modi is leveling baseless allegations against Congress. It is the Congress which has

implemented the strong weapon like RTI to curb the corruption. It‘s we who took strong steps against corrupt leaders. I challenge and

ask them whether they took such steps against their people. Have they taken such steps in Gujarat? Not at all. There was no Lokyukta in

Gujarat for ten years. Why? Because they wanted that their misdeeds remain hidden, and they claim that they will punish the guilty,

how good is that? Why they don’t expel the corrupt ministers from the Gujarat cabinet; Gujarat CM needs to answer this.

Congress has always been fighting for a society which could be a better place to live and we will continue to walk on this path. We have

mentioned all our promises in our manifesto. We always fulfilled our promise unlike others.

We have implementef food security act so that every poor person will get food grains at a very low cost. To enhance further our

initiatives to help the people, our manifesto offers a right to health - to provide free medicine and treatment for the poor. It also has

proposals for social security and insurance measures for the people working in unorganized sector. We also will ensure pension for old-

aged and disabled. Many poor don’t have a strong roof above their head and they suffer in acute weather. We therefore will give Right

to shelter for them; we will provide strong laws for women to make them financially stable. We know our youth need employment; we

recognize their talent and will provide them scholarship and technical training.

Congress wants to take nation on a path of financial development for all sections. Power doesn’t belong for a handful of people but

everybody must have equal rights. We have a vision for independent and broad minded society.

There is hatred, hunger for power and greed in BJP’s thinking. They want to work for handful of people; weaker sections are not able to

raise their voice and common man is being discriminated by his religion, caste and community. Narendra Modi ji gives an impression

that the results are out and he is sitting on the throne. May be he is suffering from ‘power fever’ so much that he forgets that it’s the

people to decide not him. He wants all wealth in one hand. He is high on power and he has forgotten that people will decide the fate of

the nation and not him.

I fully believe that you won’t choose the wrong path but the right one, the path of Congress. I am sure you will make all our candidates

win with huge margins and you will give a strong and secular government to the country.

Thank you.