BJP leader attacks Gandhi over his meeting with NGOs in C'garh

BJP general secretary and Chhattisgarh MP Saroj Pandey Monday took a dig at Congress president Rahul Gandhi over his meeting with NGOs in Raipur, saying he shuns national organisations working for tribals and encourages those working against the country.

Gandhi should also speak to nationalist NGOs, she told reporters, responding to the Congress president's campaign in the poll-bound state, whose several districts have been badly hit by naxalism.

The Congress president should answer why the UPA government had employed somebody like Binayak Sen, who was accused of sedition and helping Maoists, and had helped NGOs which used foreign donations running into thousands of crores for "anti-national" activities.

"Is he going to the Naxal-hit Chhattisgarh with some hidden agenda," Pandey, a Rajya Sabha member from the state, asked.

In a swipe at Gandhi, she said he has been meeting farmers who remember the "anti-farmer" government the Congress has run under Ajit Jogi before the BJP came to power in 2003.

"There was a scam of over Rs 52,000 crore in the name of farmers' debt waiver, and the CAG had raised questions about it. Why has Rahul Gandhi been silence about it?" she said.

Farmers and tribals were exploited by the Congress government in the state, Pandey said.