Author: PTI
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: February 4, 2010
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/233764/Cong-distances-itself-from-Digvijay-BJP-slams-him.html
An apparently embarrassed Congress on Thursday
distanced itself from party leader Digvijay Singh's visit to Azamgarh to meet
the families of suspected terrorists but a combative BJP slammed Singh, terming
his action as "naked pursuit of votebank politics".
Taking strong objection to Singh's visit,
BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad took potshots at Congress asking whether
it will send its leaders to Pakistan also.
"Where will the Congress stop in this
new trend of visiting families of terrorists...This is naked pursuit of votebank
politics.
Will they visit Pakistan to meet families
of terrorists who come to India from there," he asked.
On Wednesday, Digvijay had visited the family
of Batla House encounter accused Mohammad Saif who was arrested earlier this
week.
Even the Congress tried to disassociate itself
from Singh's statements made in Azamgarh on the Batla encounter.
"Digvijay Singh has said that he went
there (Azamgarh) to find the facts of the issue. He is a senior Congress leader
and the general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh. You have to ask him
the meaning and scope of that statement," Congress spokesman Abhishek
Singhvi told reporters here.
The issue has given BJP, which has accused
the UPA government often of being soft on terror for minority appeasement,
a handle to take on the Congress.
"Congress General Secretary Digvijay
Singh's visit to Sanjarpur is a manifestation of narrow-minded, worst and
ugliest form of votebank politics," Prasad said.
He maintained that the UPA government had
given a clean chit to the Batla House encounter of September 18, 2008 in which
inspector Mohan Chand Sharma was fatally shot. Prasad said even an NHRC inquiry
had not found anything amiss. Moreover, the Congress-led government had even
bestowed the Ashok Chakra on Sharma.
"A sponsored PIL in the matter was dismissed
by the High Court and then the Supreme Court. Still Singh has gone to their
house.
This represents a very diseased political
mindset," Prasad said, adding, "this is also an attempt to indict
the whole Muslim community for terrorism and is utterly irresponsible."
BJP demanded that Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh, Home Minister P Chidambaram and Congress President Sonia Gandhi should
come clean on the issue.
He said while on the one hand the government
had given a Ashok Chakra (posthumous) to inspector Sharma, a Congress general
secretary was questioning the encounter.
Prasad asserted that Singh had not visited
the family members of those killed in the blasts in Rampur and Varanasi in
Uttar Pradesh or the victims of 26/11 Mumbai terror attack.
"This shows a very diseased political
mindset," he said.
