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Journalism of Courage
8220;If someone waves the Pakistani flag in the Valley and says 8216;Pakistan zindabad8217; he should be gunned down. Such persons have no right to live in India,8221; BJP president Rajnath Singh said on Thursday as he addressed a mammoth gathering of BJP workers in Bhopal8217;s Jamboori Maidan.
The state8217;s ruling party had mobilised a massive crowd with vehicles being parked hundreds of metres away from the venue. The party claimed it had registered 2.38 lakh workers but the final turnout was much more. In his speech, Rajnath served an aggressive dose of Hindutva, while criticising the UPA Government for being soft on terror.
8220;It8217;s true that there were terror strikes when the NDA was in power but we shot dead all terrorists,8221; Singh said referring to attacks on Parliament and Akshardham. 8220;If we come to power we will immediately hang Afzal Guru,8221; he said, adding that the Centre should frame a stringent anti-terror law.
Later, the BJP8217;s prime ministerial nominee L K Advani, who arrived from Gujarat, also spoke but took a different line, focusing more on the Lok Sabha elections than the Assembly polls in MP. 8220;The next general elections will be a turning point in India8217;s polity,8221; he said, adding that the general elections in 1977, 1989 and 1998 were the most crucial elections in the country8217;s history. Using the cash-for-vote scandal in Parliament to drive home his point, he added that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh8217;s Government is the most inefficient and corrupt that the country has seen.
Asserting that the greatest leaders that India has witnessed are Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, Deendayal Upadhyay and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, he also stated that his rath yatras of 1990 and 1997 and Murli Manohar Joshi8217;s Ekta Yatra of 1992 have been the most important such events in India.
