BJP trains guns on Khurshid, Congress defensive
NEW DELHI: Demanding sacking of Law Minister Salman Khurshid for his comments on Batla House encounter, BJP today asked the Prime Minister to "break his silence" and clear the clouds over the "sensitive" issue while a defensive Congress claimed that he was "misunderstood".
"The Prime Minister would have to break his silence...The Prime Minister should make it clear today itself if his Home Minister is speaking the truth or his Law Minister," said BJP vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi here. He said, "It was a matter of concern that there was an internal rift within the government on a matter which was so sensitive as that concerning terrorism and national security."
Speaking in Lucknow, national vice president of BJP Vinay Katiyar demanded that Khurshid be sacked. However, Congress spokesperson Renuka Chowdhary said, "Khurshid has already clarified that he has been misunderstood and what is being implied is not correct. He has said that he said something else but what was interpreted was different. We have nothing to say after he has clarified."
Asked whether Congress was distancing from the Minister's statement, Chowdhary retorted, "We are neither distancing nor endorsing. In fact there was no such statement". Addressing an election meeting in a village in Azamgarh yesterday, Khurshid had said that that pictures of the Batla House encounter case had brought tears to the eyes of Congress President Sonia Gandhi. The Minister today backtracked asserting he did not say that Sonia cried and had only stated that she became "emotional".
However, Khurshid's party colleague Digvijay Singh, who has in the past questioned the authenticity of the ennounter, said, "Soniaji never cried. These are Salman Khurshid's words." Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav questioned as to why Khurshid had remembered about Sonia Gandhi's tears on Batla house encounter case at election time.