BHOPAL: Veteran Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Thursday said he would send defamation notices to BJP leaders GVL Narsimha Rao and Amit Malviya for dubbing him as a handler of Pakistan intelligence agency ISI.
“I’ve come to know that two BJP leaders GVL Narsimha Rao and Amit Malviya have said that I was a handler of the group of ISI-backed terrorists who carried out the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.
"I want to ask those two BJP leaders that if I was the handler of the 26/11 attackers, why has no action been taken against me, despite a BJP led government at the centre since six years now.
"Have those in power at the centre, including PM Modi and home minister Amit Shah been sleeping. I’m a former CM of a state and also a Rajya Sabha member for six years, why was no action taken against me. Are the PM and home minister so incompetent that they can’t act against me?” Singh said in Gwalior on Thursday.
“I’m going to send defamation notices to both BJP leaders, who’ve linked my name to the 26/11 attack as the ISI handler of the attack,” said Singh.
On Wednesday, the BJP leader GVL Narsimha Rao had reportedly said that there seemed to be a connection emerging between the Congress's idea of Hindu terror and LeT, ISI's 26/11 strategy. "Was someone from India helping ISI as handler to give terrorists Hindu identity? Was Digvijaya Singh working as handler? Congress should answer this.”
Also, BJP spokesperson Amit Malviya had tweeted an old video of Digvijaya Singh, in which Singh was seen blaming the RSS after the 26/11 attack.
The 2008 Malegaon blast case accused and BJP MP from Bhopal, Pragya Singh Thakur, who had defeated Singh in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, too had said, "I have been saying that the script has been written. This is a conspiracy of the Congress. I was only made a pawn. It is true that they were the first to use the term Hindu terrorists in the wake of Malegaon blast in 2008.
"Immediately after this attack, Digvijay Singh released a book called Hindu terrorism in which he said the 26/11 attack on Mumbai was done by Hindus and RSS."
Importantly, the saffron terror/Hindu terror debate has been reignited by the recently released autobiography of former Mumbai Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria titled “Let Me Say It Now.”
In the book, Maria has claimed that had Pakistani terrorist Mohammad Ajmal Kasab not been caught alive, the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack would have been portrayed by some sections of media to have been carried out by “Hindu” terrorists.