BJP turns blind eye to corruption in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh: Rahul

New Delhi: Attacking BJP on corruption issue, Rahul Gandhi on Friday accused it of blocking the passage of anti-graft bills in Parliament and turning a blind eye to corrupt practices in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh ruled by it.

Addressing a two-day national convention "Udaan" of NSUI, the party Vice President asked the party's youth brigade to counter the Opposition's campaign of painting all good works done by UPA as wrong. "You have to understand the strategy of the Opposition of opposing with anger and harsh words whatever Congress does even if it is good....They see corruption in whatever we do. But they fail to see corruption in states ruled by them like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh," Rahul said.

"A tainted (former) Chief Minister (B S Yeddyurappa) went to jail. But yet they could not see any corruption there and they still got him back into the party. And then they go outside and give lectures to Congress on corruption," Gandhi said, asking the NSUI workers to fan out in colleges and tell people the truth of the Opposition's campaign. Acknowledging that those working in NSUI and Youth Congress do not get enough support from senior leaders in the parent party at times, he assured to help them.

"Elections are coming. Our effort will be to ensure maximum representation to Youth Congress leaders. In the time to come, we are going to give more representation to leaders from Youth Congress and NSUI. "We will give more space to NSUI in Congress party. The country will see the strength of Congress in NSUI. Youths will be more visible," he said.

Asking NSUI workers to go to colleges and universities and tell the youths that it was Congress which brought RTI and Lokpal and rights based legislations, he said they should counter the Opposition propaganda but not with anger or harsh words. "Our focus is never on anger but love and brotherhood. We are a party of Mahatma Gandhi. Our focus is more on work and so is yours. This is our DNA. You should not leave it. How much the Opposition provokes you, I urge you not to fall in the trap. You work with love," Rahul said.

Maintaining that Congress has opened the closed doors politics and more so in NSUI and Youth Congress, he asked the party's youth brigade to spread the word that corruption will come to an end only when closed doors of other organisations are also opened through elections. He lauded the NSUI for training over one lakh students about how to use RTI to hit at corruption.