Sticking to fake Batla claims will hit police morale: Gadkari

Bhopal: Hitting out at Congress leaders for dubbing the 2008 Batla House encounter as fake despite the Delhi court verdict, former BJP President Nitin Gadkari on Friday said that such remarks will dent the morale of those fighting for the country. “I do not know what sort of politics these Congress leaders are indulging in as they are saying that the Batla house encounter was fake even after the court verdict in the matter,” Gadkari told reporters in Bhopal without naming Congress General Secretary Digvijaya Singh. [caption id=“attachment_1005427” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  BJP leader Nitin Gadkari. PTI[/caption] Last week, Singh had said that he still stood by his statement of the encounter being fake and claimed that he had made the statement on the basis of the information given to him at that time. Also, he had refused to apologise for it. Digvijaya had also claimed that had his demand for a judicial inquiry been met, “many things may have come to light.” On 25 July, a Delhi court had convicted suspected Indian Mujahideen terrorist Shahzad Ahmad for murdering police inspector MC Sharma in the 2008 Batla House encounter, which took place in Jamia Nagar locality in New Delhi on 19 September, 2008, six days after serial bomb blasts rocked Delhi, killing 26 people and injuring 133 others. Gadkari said, “If remarks like these continue to be made then no police officer would ever think or dare to challenge a real terrorist in any encounter.” He said it was necessary that “no one does or say anything that contributes to lowering the morale of those who are fighting for the sake of the country.” Slamming UPA for the falling rupee, Gadkari said when the country became independent one dollar was equal to one rupee but now due to faulty policies of the Congress-led government, the value of one dollar is Rs 60. “I feel that the day is not far off when the value of one dollar would be Rs 65,” he said. To a query on BJP leader Yashwant Sinha’s statement that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi would be the country’s next Prime Minister, Gadkari offered no comments. “The time has not come to say who would be the next Prime Minister. A decision on this would be taken at an appropriate time,” he said. On who is better among Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and his Madhya Pradesh counterpart Shivraj Singh Chouhan, he said both were equally good. The ex-BJP chief said he was saying this as both had done a lot of good work in their respective states in a very good manner. Gadkari said he was particularly happy with the fact that the agricultural growth in Madhya Pradesh was over 18 percent as compared to the national average of four percent. Similarly, the condition of roads in Madhya Pradesh under the BJP rule was much better than what it was when the Congress used to be in power. Gadkari said that right now there was good governance in the three BJP-ruled states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Gujarat. PTI