Rahul asks party workers to mend their ways ahead of UP polls

Rahul Gandhi today asked party workers involved in groupism "to mend their ways" so that a united Congress can win the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections due next year.
"Those dabbling in groupism should mend their ways and stay united to give a crushing defeat to other parties in the elections," the Congress Vice President said at a meeting with party leaders that went on till wee hours today.
Rahul discussed threadbare the issues before the party and asked party workers to fan out in the interiors to make people aware of Congress' policies and programmes.
He also discussed ways to counter the strategy of opposition parties.

Winding up his three-day visit to his Lok Sabha constituency, Rahul today participated in the district vigilance committee meeting.
Meanwhile, some protesting anganwadi workers tried to gather on the route to be taken by the Congress leader to air their grievances. When police tried to stop them they were involved in a fracas.

Later, when Rahul arrived on the scene while leaving for Lucknow, he came out of his car and listened to their grievances.
Rahul also attacked the Prime Minister over his policy
towards Pakistan and said he is the same person who used to ridicule UPA's Pak policy that led to isolation of Pakistan and brought peace to Kashmir.

"Today the same person who used to ridicule us sits silently while Kashmir burns. Narendra Modi will be judged by history as the man who gifted massive political space to anti- India forces by creating an opportunistic political alliance between the BJP and the PDP. He has created the political vacuum that gives the terrorists space to operate," he said.
Accusing the Government of getting itself into a "complete mess" with regards to Pakistan, the Congress leader said, "Their policy on Pakistan is a complete failure. Why must the people of India suffer long speeches and irresponsible statements while militants supported by Pakistan walk into our army bases and kill our jawans at will?."

Gandhi said Congress gave full support to government on the surgical strikes and will always support any action that helps India defeat terrorism.
"But policy cannot be based on ad hoc responses to events. The price of not thinking actions is simply too high. It is high time that the government develops a coherent strategy," he said, adding the idea behind the strikes was to stop Pakistan from cross border attacks but there have been 21 major attacks after that instead.
It is not the Prime Minster or the Defence Minister who is paying the price, but the soldiers and their families, he said, noting that 85 soldiers have been martyred so far, the highest in a decade.

Recalling how terrorists walked into highly defended army base in Jammu and killed officers and men in cold blood, Gandhi asked, "Is the government not responsible for maintaining the security of our bases? Are these young men just statistics destined to gather dust in the records of the government of India? Does the Govt not owe them an apology?.