In response to Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s “Hindu terror” remark, the Congress on Saturday said the BJP-led government was playing socially divisive politics to hide its security failures.
“The situation has changed since the BJP came to power,” senior Congress leade Ghulam Nabi Azad said at a press conference. “The number of ceasefire violations recorded this year — be it on the international border or on the LoC — we have never seen such number of violations happening before.”
In the Friday session of Parliament, Mr. Singh grabbed the attention of the House as he spoke about the recent Gurdaspur terror attack. Since the government had faced criticism over the security breach, the dissenting Congress members listened to him quietly. But much to their surprise, Mr. Singh made a swift transition, launching an attack on the Congress, accusing the former Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde of inventing the term “Hindu terror”, which, according to him, “diverted the attention of the people”.
Mr. Azad said Mr. Singh made a sneaky attempt to break the logjam by starting off his speech with the Gurdaspur attack and then hijacking the parliamentary forum to “abuse and defame” the Congress.
“We are very keen on having a comprehensible discussion on terrorism,” he said. “But the Prime Minister has to be part of the debate. He shall have to answer because it is he who is meeting the heads of the neighbouring countries.”
On Mr. Singh’s “Hindu terror” jibe, Mr. Azad said the BJP was worried because the National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe in the Malegoan, Mecca Masjid and Samjhauta Express blasts suggest the guilty had “direct and indirect” links with the BJP and the RSS.
“The lawyer who is representing the NIA has publicly declared that the NIA has been told to go slow,” said Mr. Azad. “Which person in the government has told the NIA to go slow and why? Why doesn’t the High Court pick up the case? Why doesn’t the Supreme Court [intervene]?”
Digging up the Kandahar hijack of 1998 when the NDA government swapped three terrorists for 176 passengers, Mr. Azad said the BJP had committed security blunders in the past, which are likely to be repeated. “They handed the terrorists to our enemies in Kandahar. How can you lecture us,” he asked, adding that the party has lost leaders like Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Vidya Charan Shukla while fighting terrorism.
