Vijayapura (Karnataka), May 8 : Accusing the Congress of destroying the country to promote a dynasty, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday and said the party was now getting destroyed while trying to save that dynasty (Nehru-Gandhi family).

"One thing is clear -- the Congress destroyed the nation in promoting a dynasty. Today, to save that dynasty, the Congress is getting destroyed," he said at a rally here.

Modi also targeted the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government in the poll-bound state, saying there was "not even a single Minister who has not faced allegations of corruption".

The Prime Minister accused the Congress of trying to gain votes by seeking to divide communities.

He claimed that the Congress was spreading lies on the issue of women's security and said that a daughter is a daughter, irrespective of the community she belongs to.

"Whether a daughter is of a Hindu, a Muslim, or a Christian, a daughter is a daughter. Whichever community or religion she belongs to, a daughter should be respected or not? She should get security or not?" he asked.

The Prime Minister also accused the Congress of not supporting the triple talaq bill in the Rajya Sabha.

"I am surprised. The Congress steeped in vote bank politics is giving lectures and, on the other hand, Muslim women are asked to leave houses after triple talaq. We bought a bill on triple talaq. The Congress did not allow it to be passed in Parliament," he said.

Referring to Congress President Rahul Gandhi, he said the opposition party was in such a situation that their leaders did not have faith in their 'naamdar' (dynasty) leader.

In an apparent reference to United Progressive Alliance Chairperson Sonia Gandhi's rally at Vijayapura during the day, he said that Congress leaders were now saying that if she canvasses in the state, it can at least save the security deposits of Congress candidates.

Modi said he had on Monday watched an interview of a Congress leader who said that the son (Congress President Rahul Gandhi) "will not be able to do anything".

"If you bring the mother (Sonia) to Karnataka and she does something, then maybe the deposits can be saved. This is what Congress leaders have started speaking," Modi said.

Modi referred to Vijayapura as the birth place of Lord Basaveshwara, a 12th century social reformer and philosopher who founded the Lingayat religious tradition, and targeted the Siddaramaiah government over its move to recommend minority community status for the Lingayats in the southern state.

He said Lord Basaveshwara's message was against divisions of caste and community but the state government had got into a habit of working against his message and of forgetting his words.

"Bhagwan Basaveshwara conveyed that everyone should be taken along. This Congress government is dividing communities, castes, voters... divide and rule, pit one against the other. They want to save their chair. But Congress leaders do not know this is the land of Bhagwan Basaveshwara. It is not going to be divided into communities and will not accept division among brothers. They will remove the Congress but will not allow (spread of) the poison of casteism," Modi said.

Without taking names, Modi targeted state Water Resources Minister M.B. Patil and said: "Here, everyone knows about how contracts are awarded, how bundles of notes were found in the almirahs of contractors."

He said Bharatiya Janata Party's philosophy was inspired by the teachings of saints of Karnataka and it was seeking votes in the name of development.

Modi said lakhs of people in Karnataka had benefited from his government's schemes on cooking gas connections and electricity connections.

The Prime Minister announced steps for the benefit of local farmers, including a food processing unit and agri-horticultural unit, and Rs 2-lakh insurance for landless labourers.

 

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Bhopal (PTI): The effects of poisonous gases that leaked from the Union Carbide factory in Madhya Pradesh's Bhopal 40 years ago were seen in the next generations of those who survived the tragedy, a former government forensic doctor has said.

At least 3,787 people were killed, and more than five lakh were affected after a toxic gas leaked from the pesticide factory in the city on the intervening night of December 2 and 3, 1984.

Speaking at an event held by organisations of gas tragedy survivors on Saturday, Dr D K Satpathy, former head of the forensics department of Bhopal's Gandhi Medical College, said he performed 875 post-mortems on the first day of the disaster and witnessed 18,000 autopsies the next five years.

Sathpathy claimed Union Carbide had denied questions about the effects of poisonous gases on unborn children of women survivors and said effects would not cross the placental barrier in the womb in any condition.

He said blood samples of pregnant women who died in the tragedy were examined, and it was found that 50 per cent of poisonous substances found in the mother were also found in the child in her womb.

Children born to surviving mothers had the poisonous substances in their system, and this affected the health of the next generation, Sathpathy claimed and questioned why research on this was stopped.

Such effects will continue for generations, he said.

Satpathy said it was said that MIC gas leaked from the Union Carbide plant, and when it came in contact with water, thousands of gases were formed, and some of these caused cancer, blood pressure and liver damage.

Rachna Dhingra of Bhopal Group for Information and Action said Satpathy, who carried out most autopsies, and other first responders in the 1984 disaster, including the senior doctors in the emergency ward and persons involved in mass burials, narrated their experiences during the event.

Rashida Bee, president of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmchari Sangh, a poster exhibition covering every aspect of the disaster will be held till December 4 to mark the 40th anniversary of the tragedy.

An anniversary rally will be organised, with focus on global corporate crimes such as industrial pollution and climate change, she said.