BJP is running govt in TN, says Cong V-P

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Sunday accused the BJP government at the Centre of “arm twisting” and “running” the Tamil Nadu government.

Mr Gandhi hit out at the Central government over “mismanagement in Kashmir”. Speaking to reporters on Sunday, he said, “About six-seven months back, Mr Jaitley met me and I told him they are mishandling Kashmir, and that they are going to set Kashmir on fire. Arun Jaitley brushed me aside and said Kashmir is peaceful”. Speaking to the media after having discussions with party functionaries at the state Congress headquarters, Sathyamurthy Bhavan, he said: “The BJP is convinced that they run Tamil Nadu. The BJP believes that the only people who should be in power in India are people who believe in the RSS. The party believes that anybody else, regardless of who it is — whether it be Congress or any opposition party — should not exist in India”.

He also charged the saffron party with trying to enforce the belief that there should be no expression of any feelings other than the feelings of their movement”.

He said the Tamil culture is the way people of Tamil Nadu express themselves and we have to respect that. “Each Indian state has its own way of culture, own way of thinking, its own way of expressing itself and its own food,” Mr Gandhi

said. Asserting that the differences are India’s strength and not weakness, he said: “The BJP is absolutely convinced that these are India’s weaknesses and these different ideas need to be crushed.”

Explaining the importance of Saturday’s meeting, he said the Opposition wanted to tell people that India is not one idea and India is thousands of ideas”.