The BJP has launched a blistering attack on the Congress after its spokesperson linked the formation of terror outfit Indian Mujahideen to the Gujarat riots, saying it was a desperate attempt by the ruling party to communalise the polity.
Referring to Congress spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed’s comment on the terror outfit, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley, in a signed article circulated by party’s media department said, “The Congress spokesman has sought to re-write history. His effort is to somehow paint the IM as an organisation of the aggrieved who are victims of Gujarat riots. He ignores the international context and Pakistan’s strategy behind the creation of IM. This is yet another desperate attempt to communalise an issue of national security.”
RSS spokesperson Ram Madhav, also termed Shakeel’s comments shocking. “Ahmed is acting like IM spokesperson. Terrorism flourishes in India, courtesy apologists like Ahmed... His justification of terrorism is shocking. It is the Congress brand politics that has bred all forms of terror in India,” he wrote on Twitter.
Jaitley argued that the Congress was deliberately trying to divert the agenda on communal lines to deflect attention from its failures.
“Faced with the crisis of governance and a lack of leadership, the UPA’s desperate strategy appears to be to deflect the agenda… They have therefore only one option left, communalise the polity in the country and change electoral agenda,” he said.
The BJP attacked the Congress following a series of barbs against Gujarat CM Narendra Modi by the ruling party. “At the Centre, the Congress strategy in the first phase comprised of excessively attacking Modi. In the process they are conceding the centre-stage to him. Soon they will realize the counter productivity of their strategy and move back to the alternative practice of pretending to ignore Modi,” he said.
The senior leader also questioned UPA’s attempt to pit the security agencies against each other as it happened in case of Ishrat Jehan’s case.
“A conscious effort is being made to project the LeT module as a martyr and India’s security and Intelligence set up as the villain. Is this a conscious pact of a strategy to perpetuate vote bank at the cost of national security?” he said. Deputy Leader of BJP in the Rajya Sabha Ravi Shankar Prasad said it was a “desperate” Congress that was actually trying to communalise the political scenario and playing with national security as it had “no answers for all the wrongs” it had done. The BJP also termed Shakeel’s original tweet “stupid and reprehensible”, saying India cannot ignore the links of terror groups like IM to Pakistan.
Congress in Backfoot
As Congress general secretary Shakeel Ahmed’s tweet linking Indian Mujahideen’s emergence to the 2002 Gujarat riots threatened to overshadow Rahul Gandhi’s two-day media conclave, which focuses on social media, the Congress quickly distanced itself from the controversial comment and forced Shakeel to issue a clarification. Asked to comment on the controversy, party spokesperson Renuka Choudhury retorted: “It is not the party line.”
Coming close on the heels of the Congress’ attacks on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Shakeel’s tweet on Sunday got much media coverage.
He had tweeted: “Indian Mujahideen was formed after Gujarat riots, says NIA in its chargesheet. Even now BJP and RSS will not desist from communal politics?” A Congress leader from Bihar, Shakeel was referring to the NIA’s recent chargesheet against five Indian Mujahideen suspects over various terror attacks in the country.
As part of his clarification, Shakeel said on Monday: “No sane person can justify terror acts of IM or any other outfit. I simply mentioned the NIA’s version in its chargesheet highlighted by the media.”
Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Monday refused to comment on Congress leader Shakeel Ahmed’s controversial tweet on the origin of Indian Mujahideen. Shinde’s deputy R P N Singh feigned ignorance over the tweet. “Shakeel Ahmed should answer for himself. I’m not aware what he said and I have not read his tweet,” Singh told reporters here.