Shakeel Ahmad's remark shows Cong's desperate vote politics, says Jaitley

New Delhi: BJP today mounted a blistering attack on the Congress over Shakeel Ahmad’s remarks that the 2002 Gujarat riots had led to creation of terror outfit Indian Mujahideen (IM), saying it is a desperate strategy for electoral gains even as the Congress distanced itself from the comments. Congress general secretary Ahmad’s tweet that IM was formed as a reaction to the post-Godhra riots by the aggrieved drew a sharp reaction from Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley. The BJP leader slammed the Congress for this “desperate strategy” to communalise the electorate ahead of the 2014 elections. The BJP leader claimed that conventional Congress strategy in such a situation is to bank on the alleged charisma of the Congress first family. “Unfortunately, that charisma appears to be inadequate. The outgoing leadership of the UPA is perceived to be ineffective; the incoming are perceived to be non-leaders,” he said. Hence, Congress adopted the strategy of deflecting attention from the governance crisis and lack of leadership by communalising the polity and changing the electoral agenda, the opposition alleged. [caption id=“attachment_977471” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Arun Jaitley in this file photo. AFP[/caption] Jaitley charged that Ahmad was trying to re-write history. “His effort is to somehow paint the IM as an organisation of the aggrieved who are victims of riots in Gujarat,” he said Congress was quick to distance itself from Ahmad’s remarks with party spokesperson Renuka Choudhary saying, “It is not the party line as of now”. RSS too hit out at the Congress and asked it to take responsibility for Ahmad’s comments. “Congress is the fountainhead of all forms of terrorism in India,” RSS leader Ram Madhav said. Madhav said “politics of communalism is the brand of Congress” and charged that the ruling party has indulged in appeasement and championed the cause of terrorists be it those involved in the Batla House encounter or members of Indian Mujahideen or by creating a “mythical” Hindu terror. Asked about the Congress distancing itself from Ahmad’s statement, the RSS leader said this is an “old gimmick” of the ruling party in which its leaders make such reckless remarks, the party gets some political benefits and then maintains it is not the official line. “These leaders become the real apologists and strength of outfits like Indian Mujahideen,” Madhav said. BJP maintained that Ahmad has made these remarks according to a design to attack Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Jaitley said the Congress first concentrated its attack on Modi but when he excelled in this political battle, the party pretended that he does not exist. He maintained that through Ahmad’s comments the Congress at the Centre tried to attack him and is soon likely to move back to pretending he does not exist. The main opposition also mentioned the Ishrat Jahan encounter case and said the CBI charge sheet has ignored the LeT connection of those killed. He further said LeT operative David Headley’s confession to NIA that Jahan was a part of LeT module has been removed. “Is this a conscious pact of a strategy to perpetuate vote bank at the cost of national security?” he asked. Ahmad himself expressed surprise at the controversy. “Surprised by the hype in media on my tweet of 21st July regarding NIA’s charge sheet. This news was there in Indian Express & ET on 20th July,” he said. Earlier in the day, he said through another tweet “No sane person can justify terror acts of IM or any other outfit. I simply mentioned NIA’s version in its charge sheet highlighted by media”. “It’s not like that. Terrorism is born due to religious fundamentalism…Those spreading religious fundamentalism are in both communities…. The root of terror is religious fundamentalism,” he said when asked about Ahmad’s tweet. PTI