NEW DELHI: The Congress on Monday mounted a scathing attack on the BJP, linking the party directly with Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and others arrested for the recent Malegaon blasts which left six dead.
The party asked the BJP and its allied organisations to ���come clean��� on the terror attacks in Malegoan and Modasa as well as earlier ones in Nanded and Kanpur, raising emphatic questions about a photograph which shows the Sadhvi, a former ABVP activist, along with BJP president Rajnath Singh, MP chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Malini Gaur, the wife of former MP education minister Laxman Gaur.
Describing it as a ���special photograph of a close and tightly knit group��� and that of a ���special circle of trust���, the Congress said that all those who were associated with the Sadhvi should be investigated. The Sadhvi photograph has embarrassed the BJP, as her possible links with the party could take the edge off its internal security campaign against the UPA government.
The Congress, however, refrained from demanding that any particular BJP leader be investigated and evaded questions on whether it wanted the RSS, which it described as the ���controlling brain of the entire BJP set up and that of its allied organisations���, to be banned.
The party demanded that the Central government investigate the reasons and the timing of the Malegaon and Modasa blasts, find out who was co-ordinating the financing of these operations and also who stood to gain from it.
Hinting that the BJP���s intent was to polarise society along religious lines for electoral benefit, the Congress attacked the BJP���s ideology of cultural nationalism or sanskritic rashtravad as being a cover under for practising communal politics.
���The investigations into the Malegaon and Modasa blasts are not only terrifying because they involve terrorism, they are horribly horrifying because the involve and implicate almost every limb and part of a mainstream political party, the BJP,��� Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said.
He said that the Sadhvi was ���admittedly��� a part of the ABVP and Major Ramesh Upadhyay, being questioned for links with the Sadhvi, was associated with the BJP���s ex-servicemen cell.
���This is the true face of the BJP....It creates Frankenstein monsters such as Pragya Singh and Major Upadhyay and then tries to fool the nation by disowning them when confronted with direct evidence,��� Mr Singhvi said. The Congress also said that attempts by some sections of its leaders to label this as ���Hindu terrorism��� would be counter-productive.
Party leaders opined that the alleged links between Sangh Parivar outfits and the bomb blasts would compromise the BJP���s internal security plank. They added that the nuclear deal had taken the steam out the Opposition���s ���weak PM��� slogans too, thus putting the Congress on a better wicket than it was earlier.
The BJP, for its part, has said the Sadhvi had left the ABVP in 1995-96 and has criticized any attempt to characterise the developments as ���Hindu or ���Saffron terror���.
#Operation Sindoor
Describing it as a ���special photograph of a close and tightly knit group��� and that of a ���special circle of trust���, the Congress said that all those who were associated with the Sadhvi should be investigated. The Sadhvi photograph has embarrassed the BJP, as her possible links with the party could take the edge off its internal security campaign against the UPA government.
The Congress, however, refrained from demanding that any particular BJP leader be investigated and evaded questions on whether it wanted the RSS, which it described as the ���controlling brain of the entire BJP set up and that of its allied organisations���, to be banned.
The party demanded that the Central government investigate the reasons and the timing of the Malegaon and Modasa blasts, find out who was co-ordinating the financing of these operations and also who stood to gain from it.
Hinting that the BJP���s intent was to polarise society along religious lines for electoral benefit, the Congress attacked the BJP���s ideology of cultural nationalism or sanskritic rashtravad as being a cover under for practising communal politics.
���The investigations into the Malegaon and Modasa blasts are not only terrifying because they involve terrorism, they are horribly horrifying because the involve and implicate almost every limb and part of a mainstream political party, the BJP,��� Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said.
#Operation Sindoor
He said that the Sadhvi was ���admittedly��� a part of the ABVP and Major Ramesh Upadhyay, being questioned for links with the Sadhvi, was associated with the BJP���s ex-servicemen cell.
The Congress sought to draw a link between the thinking of RSS founder KS Hegdewar and its ideologue MS Golwalkar and the ideas of those such as Pragya Thakur, Bajrang Dal���s Himanshu Phanse and Rajkondawar who died while putting together a bomb in Nanded this April. It even went one step further to compare the locations���Pune and Nagpur���and players in the present case with that of the Gandhi assassination conspiracy of 1948.
���This is the true face of the BJP....It creates Frankenstein monsters such as Pragya Singh and Major Upadhyay and then tries to fool the nation by disowning them when confronted with direct evidence,��� Mr Singhvi said. The Congress also said that attempts by some sections of its leaders to label this as ���Hindu terrorism��� would be counter-productive.
Party leaders opined that the alleged links between Sangh Parivar outfits and the bomb blasts would compromise the BJP���s internal security plank. They added that the nuclear deal had taken the steam out the Opposition���s ���weak PM��� slogans too, thus putting the Congress on a better wicket than it was earlier.
The BJP, for its part, has said the Sadhvi had left the ABVP in 1995-96 and has criticized any attempt to characterise the developments as ���Hindu or ���Saffron terror���.
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