BJP has become party of one individual: Azad

Claiming it had become the party of one individual, Union Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad today hit out at BJP even as he charged that its prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, stood for the prosperity of only a few.
"BJP has become the party of an individual. It is seeking votes not in the name of the party but in the name of an individual.
"When votes are sought in the name of an individual, it is dictatorship. And the fight today is between dictatorship and democracy," Azad said at an event organised by NSUI here.
As opposed to BJP, Congress stood for the development of all and decisions were taken collectively within the party, he said, adding that the country had a choice between rule by the majority, with all its diversity, and rule by an individual.

Azad said that the much-talked-about Gujarat model ranked below other states on various indicators. Many states have better models, he added.
Azad then went on to laud the programmes and welfare schemes launched by the UPA government and said it had carried out developmental work on a scale never before seen in the country, but some sections of the media had largely ignored that.

"Political parties joined by an overwhelming section of the media are denouncing the work which the UPA has done," he said.
Stray incidents were blown out of proportion and given much publicity while path-breaking decisions were not even mentioned, he claimed.

"If you show some untruth on TV ten times, the people believe it. Say a lie a hundred times in a public meeting and people think it is true," he said.
Also present on the occasion was the Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Shashi Tharoor, who said that the work done by the government in the field of education was in many areas better than what the NDA had achieved when in power.