Development of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar necessary: Rahul Gandhi

AMETHI - Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi Monday said that Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are very important states for the entire nation and their development was necessary for nation building.

“Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are extremely important for the entire nation and unless these two states were developed, all talk about nation building would be meaningless,” Gandhi said here.

“Together with development, what UP and Bihar need desperately is large scale improvement in the law and order, without which the overall picture cannot change,” he pointed out.

He was speaking to reporters at a special function to mark the inauguration of the National Footwear Design and Development Institute at Fursatganj. The Gandhi scion is here on a three-day visit to his parliamentary constituency.

Uttar Pradesh is ruled by Chief Minister Mayawati, who heads the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), while in Bihar, where state assembly elections are on, a Janata Dal-United-Bharatiya Janata Party government is hoping to win a second term.

Rahul Gandhi also expressed concern over rising corruption and emphasised the need for strict action against the menace.

“Corruption is a serious issue and we have already initiated certain tough measures to deal with it,” he said in reply to a pointed query by a journalist just as he rose to leave the venue.

Reacting to his emphasis on the need for development of a backward Uttar Pradesh, when a scribe pointed out his own focus was on Amethi and Rae Bareli (his mother Sonia Gandhi’s constituency), Rahul Gandhi shot back, “Well, even Amethi and Rae Bareli still require much more development.”

He blamed the state government for not focusing its attention on the need for development of the entire state.

Earlier, speaking at the function, he exhorted the youth to realise that they were the “nation builders of tomorrow”, and the future of the nation depended on them.

Significantly, this was one of the rare occasions during his Rae Bareli or Amethi visits when he interacted with the media, which is usually keeps at an arm’s length from him.