Uma Bharti's birthday gift for Rahul Gandhi: A book by Nehru praising RSS

BJP leader Uma Bharti today said she will gift Rahul Gandhi a book by the country's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on his birthday and hoped the young Congress leader will "respect the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as his grandfather" did.

"I wish Rahul Gandhi a long and healthy life but he should avoid making (political) mistakes. I want Rahul to learn from his grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru how to respect your opponents," Bharati told reporters here.

"I will gift him today a book by Nehru, in which he praised RSS for its contribution to the country and invited it to participate in Republic Day parade," she said.

She accused the BSP government in Uttar Pradesh of patronining criminal elements and asked the Chief Minister to seek apology for the Nighasan incident in which a girl was allegedly raped and murdered in a police station.

Reacting to BSP's rally in Bhopal, the BJP leader said that after the emergence of Mayawati in UP, the dalits and the women had hoped for a better future. "However, the way in which these particular sections have fallen prey to repression clearly indicated the BSP is losing its foothold everywhere," she said

Bharti deplored the "poor" law and order situation in UP and said, "to purify UP politics of criminalisation is her political agenda."

She also vowed to save Ganga from pollution. Bharti termed the Ganga Expressway plan as impractical.