BJP asks Cong to apologise, Oppn questions NIA probe
For its appeasement politics, the Congress targeted and defamed Hindus and the country for merely votes... Congress has been exposed... SAMBIT PATRA, BJP spokesman It [the acquittal] is happening in each case since the [NDA] government was formed four years ago... people are losing faith in the agencies. GHULAM NABI AZAD, Cong leader
NEWDELHI: The Congress’ politics of defaming Hindus stood exposed and party chief Rahul Gandhi and United Progressive Alliance (upa) chief Sonia Gandhi should apologise for their party coining terms such as Hindu terror, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said on Monday.
The demand came after a National Investigation Agency (NIA) court acquitted Assemanand and four others in the 2007 Mecca Masjid blast case for lack of evidence. “For its appeasement politics, the Congress targeted and defamed Hindus and the country for merely some votes. That conspiracy has been exposed. The Congress has been exposed like never before,” BJP spokesman Sambit Patra said.
Nine people were killed and 58 injured when a massive blast ripped through Hyderabad’s historic mosque on May 18, 2007 during Friday prayers.
Five people were killed in police firing in the violence that followed the blast. Patra criti- cised the Congress for blaming the Modi government for the acquittals and questioned the party’s “double standards”, saying it had welcomed a court order that cleared the accused in the 2G scandal.
The Congress was in power for seven years after the blasts, what did it do, he said.
Taking a dig at Rahul Gandhi, Patra wondered if the Congress chief would lead a march to India Gate and apologise for his attempts to “defame” Hindus.
Gandhi had on April 12 led a candlelight vigil against rising incidents of rape and crime against women in the country.
Patra also raked up a reported comment made by Gandhi during a conversation with former US ambassador Timothy Roemer that radicalised Hindu groups posed a bigger threat to India than the Lashkare-taiba.
Former home ministers P Chidambaram, Shivraj Patil and Sushil Kumar Shinde had also spoken about “saffron terror” and “Hindu terror”, Patra said.
The Congress, however, questioned the functioning of NIA. “It (acquittal) is happening in each case since the government was formed four years ago... people are losing faith in the agencies,” Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad told mediapersons.