‘ Revelations good for agencies’

In his deposition before a Mumbai special court via video- conferencing, Pakistani- American terrorist David Coleman Headley said Ishrat Jahan was an LeT operative. Union home minister Rajnath Singh said Pakistan has been “exposed” after Headley’s revelations but made it clear that India wants to maintain cordial relations with that country. MoS for home affairs Kiren Rijiju said the revelations are extremely good for the security agencies and prosecuting agencies as there was growing clarity on everything in the public domain.

Accusing the Congress of politicising the encounter as part of its “hate politics” against Mr Modi, then Gujarat chief minister, the BJP said if Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her deputy, Mr Rahul Gandhi, had any “shame” left, they must apologise to the nation. The ruling party maintained that police personnel who risked their lives fighting terrorists were jailed by the then UPA government and security agencies like the CBI and IB were politicised.

“We do not expect any morality from Congress. But if Sonia and her son Rahul Gandhi, who is a champion in the politics of conspiracy, have any shame left, then they must apologise to the nation... They should apologise to the police personnel’s families who had to suffer after they were put in jail for killing these terrorists in an encounter. Congress and its allies linked terrorists with religion to mask their corrupt governance,” BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma said. The BJP cited a number of developments during the UPA’s tenure, including “contradictory” affidavits filed in court over the Ishrat case and the NIA’s reported decision to omit Headley’s statement to it in which he allegedly said that she was an LeT terrorist, to argue that the Congress used her killing to target Mr Modi and Mr Amit Shah, then a Gujarat minister and now BJP president.

Dismissing the BJP’s demand, Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said, “If BJP wants to stand with those who have been accused by the CBI in a Gujarat high court- monitored process that they were accused or complicit in the fake encounter... They can go and stand with them in a court of law ... There is nothing which stops BJP from doing that.”