Terming the Gujarat riots issue “totally irrelevant”, the BJP on Friday accused Congress of raking it up for its “political survival” and demanded that the opposition party apologise to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for questioning his “integrity”.
The reaction came in the wake of Congress latching on to claims by former RAW chief AS Dulat to demand that Mr. Modi “respect the words” of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and offer an apology to the country.
The BJP, however, insisted that every court had investigated Mr. Modi’s role and found nothing against him and added that the opposition party raises the 2002 riots issue when it can find nothing else to say.
“I think time as well as all that has happened has made that question completely irrelevant. Congress has used every method and every strata of the administration, as well as the courts and every court, including Supreme Court, has done 10 years or more of the most thorough investigation... and found nothing against the present honourable Prime Minister.
“In fact, Congress should apologise for raising questions about his integrity,” said BJP national spokesperson, M.J. Akbar.
He said that if thorough investigation was undertaken into the riots under Congress rule, many of its leaders would not be in their homes.
“Indeed, it occurs to me that if, on the riots under Congress, one-hundredth of the investigations had taken place against those who are responsible, a lot of VIPs would not be in their homes,” charged Mr. Akbar.
The BJP also out rightly rejected Mr. Dulat’s claims about the alleged “goof up” of the IC-814 hijacking case in 1999. It also rebutted claims of the ruling party compromising with terrorists and terrorism.
Claiming that Congress has a “very convenient memory” on Kandahar, Mr. Akbar said the decision to save the hijacked Indians was taken after consultations with everyone.
“It is regrettable, but perhaps their (Congress’s) occasional amnesia, where it suits them. On Kandahar, consultations were held at the highest level by senior leaders of NDA. It was a national crisis. In the spirit of the Vajpayee government, consultations were held with all the parties,” he said.
The BJP National Secretary Shrikant Sharma also accused Congress of raking up “dead issues” for its political survival and charged the opposition party with allowing Warren Andersen, who was responsible for thousands of deaths in the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, to escape scot-free.
“Congress is devoid of issues and is trying to borrow them and rake up dead issues,” he said.
