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People’s love, support more than PM’s post: Advani
Overwhelmed by the support received by the crowd in Rishikul ground here, former Deputy Prime Minister and veteran BJP leader, Lal Krishan Advani on Friday said that the support that he has got from the people during his 60-year-long political career, is much more than the power he would have enjoyed as the Prime Minister of the country.
“I keep telling people that the love and support that I have got from my party, my family and my country so far, is far more than the post of a Prime Minister,” Advani said, while addressing his second public meeting during his Jan Chetna Yatra in Uttarakhand at Rishikul ground here on Friday afternoon.
The yatra, which was scheduled to reach the venue at 11 am, was late by nearly an hour. Amid shouting of slogans like ‘BJP zindabad’, ‘Advaniji zindabad’, Uttrakhand Chief Minister Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri welcomed the veteran leader by presenting him a Gada (mace), “to kill the Ravan of corruption.”
Advani, who spoke for about 20 minutes, said that he was overwhelmed by the support that his current yatra has got from the public. “I have never received such a good response and support from the public before. Everywhere I went during my yatra, the support from people has remained very good,” he said.
Accusing the Congress of running the most corrupt government in the democratic history of the country, he said, “The Congress Government has tarnished India’s image the world over with a series of scams unearthed in recent years. It is because of corruption that prices of goods were at an all-time high in India.”
On a Delhi court granting bail to BJP’s ex-MPs on Wednesday in the cash-for-vote scam of 2008, Advani said that these MPs were whistle-blowers and should be honoured for exposing corruption at the highest places in Congress.
Talking about his long career in politics and people often talking about his age, the octogenarian leader in a jocular mood said, “When people mention my age, my daughter says that they are casting an evil eye.”
In a nostalgic mood, Advani described how a Press photographer had in 2003, asked him to stand behind the then Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and then Vice President Bhairon Singh, when he and Singh had come to Vajpayee’s residence to wish him birthday. Advani added that next day he saw two pictures on the front page of this newspaper. One, which was taken on the occasion on Vajpayeeji’s birthday and the other, a similar black and white photo, which was taken in 1953 when Bhaironji had won in the country’s first General Elections.
“I keep giving this example to my party workers to tell to tell them that how lucky they are to be in a party in which three friends after working for 50 years can simultaneously become PM, Vice President and Deputy PM of the country,” Advani said.
