Sonia and Rahul did not intervene, BJP trying to mislead, says Congress

ISHRAT JAHAN ROW

THE CONGRESS Wednesday hit back at the BJP for dragging its party president, Sonia Gandhi, into the Ishrat Jahan row, dismissing the accusation that the second affidavit was filed at the behest of the party’s top leadership as a “bundle of lies”.

It its counter offensive, Congress accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “using his cronies and pawns” to unleash a “malicious agenda” and “spread falsehoods” about the role of Sonia and Rahul Gandhi in the case.

“Unlike the RSS, which runs the Modi government by remote control, intervenes and interferes in every policy and administrative decision... Sonia Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi never conferred with, nor advised or gave any suggestion to, the then Home Minister P Chidambaram or any other person or individual in the government on any administrative issue, much less the Ishrat Jahan case,” said Congress communication department head Randeep Surjewala. He said the confusion was being created because the PM and BJP president Amit Shah had something to hide.

On Tuesday, the BJP had alleged that Sonia had asked the then Home Minister to file a second affidavit in the Ishrat case.

The Congress today called it a “mischievous attempt” to mislead people. “By such mischievous attempts to hoodwink and divert the attention of people, Modi and Amit Shah cannot put a lid on the truth... (they) owe an explanation to the 125 crore Indians and must tell the ‘real motive’ behind the desperation to shut down the ongoing trial in the Ishrat case,” said Surjewala.

Accusing the BJP of trying to “bypass the judicial findings”, the Congress said both the Ahmedabad Metropolitan Court and an Hc-constituted SIT had concluded that Ishrat was killed in a fake encounter.