I am very happy to be here in Madanapally.

I am told that Madanapally is famous for its high-quality silks, which are spun into exquisite sarees. I would very much like to carry a saree each for my wife, my daughter and my daughter-in-law.

This is my third Vijay Sankalp Rally in Andhra Pradesh. The first was in the Telangana region (in Hyderabad), the second was in the Andhra region (in Vijayawada) and this third rally is in the Rayalaseema region.

For the BJP, all three regions are equally important. We care equally for all three regions, just as we care equally for all the states of India.

Rayalaseema’s great heritage

The Rayalaseema throbs with its hoary spiritual heritage, which is its gift to the rest of India. I bow my head in veneration at the feet of Lord Venkateswara at Tirumala Temple; Lord Mallikarjuna of Srisailam; and Sri Satya Sai Baba, the saint from Puttaparthi.

This land has produced great artists, such as sangeet ratna Tyagaraja, great philosophers, such as the internationally renowned J. Krishnamurthy; and great freedom fighters, such as Gadicherla Hari Sarvottama Rao, who gave the name ‘Rayalaseema’ to this region.

I am told that Madanapalle has a proud association with two great names from India’s freedom movement — Dr. Annie Besant, after whom the Besant Theosophical College is named; and Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, who translated Jana Gana Mana from Bengali to English and also set it to music in Madanapalle.

Rayalaseema means the land ruled by Sri Krishnadevaraya, one of the greatest kings in Indian history. No wonder, Rayalaseema was once described as “Ratanala Seema” (Land of Gems). I was in Hampi, the capital of Krishnadeva Raya, a few months ago. I was wonderstruck by what I saw. I heard that this was once a land of immense prosperity, which attracted praise from visitors from around the world.

Congress misrule responsible for the schism between the glory of past and despair in the present

With such proud history of samruddhi and sanskruti, there is no inherent reason for Rayalaseema to remain backward. Yet, it is backward in many aspects, and this can only be attributed to the kind of policies followed, and the kind of governance provided, by the Congress party, which has ruled India and Andhra Pradesh for the longest period since Independence.

And this Vijay Sankalp rally has been organised to communicate my party’s message that what India needs is a radical shift in policies and a radical shift in governance.

Friends, the sun set on the 14th Lok Sabha yesterday. Elections for the 15th Lok Sabha will be annnounced shortly. In Andhra Pradesh, there will also be simultaneous elections for the Vidhan Sabha.

In 2004, Andhra Pradesh elected a Congress government in the state. It also made a major contribution to the formation of a Congress-led UPA government in New Delhi.

After five years, the people of Andhra Pradesh have an opportunity – and also a responsibility – to ask themselves if they made the right decision.

Corrupt rulers must be sent to jail

I am told that the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh hails from Rayalaseema. But what I hear about his five-year rule makes me extremely worried about the future of the state, if the Congress continues to have the reins of office for another five-year term.

There is no state government in India today that is as corrupt as the one in AP. Governance has been reduced to deal-making in every award of contract, every decision in every department.

The Satyam/Maytas scandal has brought a bad name to India’s IT industry globally. But this is not only a corporate scandal. It is indeed a political and governmental scandal since the promoters of Satyam could not have indulged in such fradulent activities without the collusion of powerful personalities in the government.

In 1985, when the Congress party celebrated its centenary, Rajiv Gandhi had famously said in his speech that the culture of “wheeler-dealers” had brought a bad name to the party. But what do we see in Andhra Pradesh, if not wheeling-dealing of the worst kind? The Satyam/Maytas scandal is only a tip of the iceberg. There are many scandals requiring to be probed.

Let me assure the people of Andhra Pradesh that, if the NDA is elected to form the next government in New Delhi, we shall do everything we can to ensure that scandals of the Congress rule in AP are properly investigated. Some people from Andhra Pradesh must go to jail, just as a former Congress minister in the Narasimha Rao government, who was involved in a multi-crore telecom scandal, has been given a three-year jail sentence by the court.

Corruption rose to stinking levels in Andhra Pradesh because it was tolerated by the Congress high command and the leadership of the UPA government. After it was reduced to a minority in July 2008, the UPA government resorted to the worst episode of political corruption to save itself. MPs were purchased by paying them unbelievable sums of money.

Can India development if we tolerate this kind of corruption in governance?

I want to ask the people gathered here: “Did Krishnadeva Raya tolerate corruption in his rule? If he had tolerated corruption, would he have been remembered today as an ideal king?”

As far as the BJP is concerned, we shall adopt a policy of “no compromise with corruption”.

I read recently that the PMO has said, in response to an RTI query, that ministers at the Centre are exempt from disclosing their assets and the assets of their close relatives. This is wrong. Those at the top echelons of government must set an example for others. If the NDA gets the mandate in the next parliamentary elections, we shall make it mandatory for all ministers to disclose their assets, and the assets of their close relatives, on an annual basis.


UPA govt’s achievement: Insecure India, insecure citizens

Friends, the right to vote is a powerful weapon in the hands of the people. It should be used judiciously. The voter can punish those who failed to live up to their promises. The voter can also use his vote to bring back a government that had a good record of service.

The NDA, under the leadership of Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, ran the government between 1998 and 2004. What we did in those six years to take the country forward is well known. And what the UPA government has done in the past five years is also known.

In the past five years:

Prices of essential commodities rose to record levels.

Major infrastructure initiatives, such as the highway project, were badly neglected.

The NDA had left behind a healthy economy in 2004. In 2009, the UPA will leave behind an economy in deep crisis. Not only did the UPA government fail to create new employment opportunities, but it actually created conditions for massive job losses. According to one estimate, more than one crore jobs are going to be slashed because of the economic crsis.

The UPA government’s programme implementation is so full of loopholes that recently the CAG castigated the government for not showing proper accounts for a whopping amoount of Rs. 51,000 crore earmarked for schemes like the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

According to a recent study, the number of people living below poverty line went up by 5.5 crores – or a record 20%.

What has pained me the most is the plight of farmers. Thousands of debt-ridden kisans committed suicide in these five years. Many of them are from Andhra Pradesh.

During my Bharat Suraksha Yatra in 2006, I had visited several parts of Andhra Pradesh which had seen kisan suicides. Since I was travelling by road, at one place I came across a large statue of a sleeping figure. I asked Venkaiahji what it was. He said, “He is Kumbhakarna.” In my subsequent speeches during the yatra, I referred to this statue and said that Congress government was also sleeping like Kumbhakarna and it needed to be woken up. But it refused to be woken up. Therefore, the time has come for the voters to tell the Congress, “Continue with your sleep for another five years. We have decided to hand over the reins of governance to the BJP and NDA.”

The farmers of Rayalaseema, in spite of suffering from water shortage, are very good practitioners of agriculture. I am told that Madanapalle is a lead producer of tomato and tamarind in Asia.

One can understand if farmers are victims of aasmaani unpredictability. There is not much that humans can do, although a farsighted government can take many effective steps. But what if the farmers are victims of sultaani misrule?

I am told that the farmers of Rayalaseema are suffering because the government has miserably failed to ensure proper supply of fertilizers. Erratic power supply to farm sector has resulted in withering of crops. The much tomtommed kisan loan waiver scheme has been an eyewash. How many in this gathering have benefited from it? Those who have, please raise your hands. Now, those who haven’t benefited from it, raise your hands. The people’s verdict can be seen right here.

But I am not here just to highlight where the Congress has failed, and how it has betrayed the kisans, youth and other sections of society.

To the farmers of Rayalaseema and Andhra Pradesh, I have several concrete promises to make:

First and foremost, we shall implement in right earnest the River-Linking Project, the work on which had begun by the Vajpayee government but which was completely abandoned by the UPA. Neither the problem of drinking water nor the scarcity of irrigation in this region can be solved on a permanent basis without the linking of rivers. Let me remind you here that the project of Ganga-Kaveri (as the scheme was earlier called) project was first conceived by a distinguished son of Andhra Pradesh – Dr. K.L. Rao.

Agricultural loans will be provided at the rate of four per cent interest.

We shall provide various subsidies directly to farmers, and not through intermediaries who corner the benefits.

Adequate power supply for agriculture, as has indeed been achieved in Gujarat.

A farm income guarantee insurance scheme for small farmers and a pension scheme for old age farmers. If government employees can have pension, why not farmers?

We shall provide remunerative minimum support price for all crops, which will be fixed after adding 50 per cent over production cost.

In short, it will be our endeavour that NOT A SINGLE FARMER IS FORCED TO COMMIT SUICIDE.
A future NDA government will effect a big policy shift to give agriculture, rural development, small and medium enterprises, and informal and unorganized sectors their rightful place in India’s future growth strategy. This is the only way we can create more employment opportunities, sustainable economic growth, equitable development, and banish poverty.

It is my dream to see that every part of India, and every section of Indian society, begins to enjoy the fruits of prosperity – as was indeed the case during the reign of Krishnadeva Raya.

During my Bharat Suraksha Yatra, I had also drawn attention to the danger posed to India’s internal security due to votebank politics of the UPA government. Since then, the problem of terrorism has become more menacing than before.

The BJP’s approach to fighting this menace is very clear: NO COMPROMISE WITH TERRORISM.

Since I am in Andhra Pradesh, I would like to reiterate my party’s oft-stated commitment about the need to create SMALLER STATES. We fully support the demand for a separate Telangana. At the same time, we would like this to happen in an amicable way, and in a way that paves the way for rapid development of both Telangana and the rest of Andhra Pradesh, including Rayalaseema.

This is the message, and this is the resolve, of the Vijaya Sankalp Rally.

Thank you.