PUNE, Sept 5: It was a long wait for the people who had gathered in large numbers at the Bhople chowk in Pune cantonment to see thespian Dilip Kumar. The actor who has ruled the hearts of the masses by his dazzling performance on the silver screen, was here in a different role - campaigning for the Congress. He reached almost one-and-half hour late at the venue where there was a mad scramble to have a close dekko at him.Waving his hand to the people who loudly cheered him, Dilip Kumar stood on the dais for about 15. After a brief introduction by Rajya Sabha MP Suresh Kalmadi, Dilip Kumar in his speech lasting for just ten minutes, began by saying, ``Yeh dastoor tha ki paach saal ke baad ek election ho, lekin aaj kal ek naya dastoor, fashion, nikla hai ki baar baar election ho rahe hai, (it had been a practice that elections were conducted after every five year, but nowadays, there seems to be the in-thing to hold elections frequently).Describing how the successive BJP governments came down, he said that the party cannot govern the country. ``Sarkar na chalane mein yeh expert hain,'' (they are experts in not running the governments). The BJP has done nothing but to divide the people and break their hearts, just like the Britishers did during their rule. But this party itself is falling apart, he maintained.Mixing his speech with some phrases in English, he said ``You are constitutionally free people.'' "In the ballot paper you will see the sacrifices of the great national leaders," he observed, while appealing the people to vote for the Congress and the Republican Party of India.
