Giriraj sparks a fresh row

Patna/New Delhi: BJP leader Giriraj Singh landed in a fresh controversy today with his remarks that terrorists belong to a particular community and termed it as “naked example of pseudo secularism” when secular leaders remain silent on the issue, drawing sharp retorts from political parties.Giriraj said,”Since terrorism is a matter relating to the country and not to a community, why secular leaders remain silent when all persons arrested in terrorism cases belong to a particular community.“Are there only a few to define religious non-discrimination? Is it not true that all the terrorists caught belong to one community? I am not saying that all the people in that community are terrorists but whoever is caught belongs to the same community,” he said. Giriraj said this mindset was “posing a danger” to the country.“This is a naked example of pseudo secularism and patronisation of a community for vote bank politics. This mindset is posing danger to the country,” said the Nawada Lok Sabha candidate of the saffron party.During the recent poll campaign, Jharkhand and Bihar police had lodged three FIRs against Singh for saying that those opposed to Narendra Modi had no place in India and they should go to Pakistan.Deprecating his remarks as “unfortunate”, some political parties demanded that the BJP leader should be “disenfranchised” while others warned that BJP and its leaders were out to “ruin” the country.Launching a scathing attack on Giriraj and BJP, Congress said the party should stop him from making such remarks. “Terrorism comes in different forms. Terrorism of thoughts is just as bad as terrorism of guns. Giriraj should reflect on that. What he says, when he says and how he said it he should reflect on what its impact is. This country will not accept that religion can be equated with terrorist crime,” Union minister Salman Khurshid said.Another Congress leader Rashid Ali said that terrorists who have been caught till now do not belong to any one particular community and attacked the BJP, saying even Sadhvi Pragya is also included in that category. “But dividing terrorists into religion is very unfortunate. BJP and its leaders will ruin this country,” Ali said.Union minister Rajiv Shukla too termed it as an “unfortunate” statement and said BJP leaders should stop him making such statments as he has been doing so constantly. “Nothing is being done to prevent him. That is wrong. Terrorism does not have any colour, religion or caste,” he said.Giriraj said the NIA list of those who have been caught as terrorists will justify his assertion.“If they are found to be of one community, I will say that they are of one community. A terrorist belonging to any community will remain a terrorist, not a patriot. Terrorist is a terrorist whether he is a Hindu or a Muslim,” the BJP leader said.Other parties too trained their guns on the BJP leader for his comments and said they reflect RSS and BJP ideology. “These kind of things are there in BJP and Sangh's ideology. Their entire politics is this. Giriraj Singh is just a symptom of the poison in the body...in the family (Parivar),” said JD(U) leader Ali Anwar. NCP leader Tariq Anwar said, “They (BJP) do not know that in 120 districts of the country, there is a Maoist movement going on...who are in them I would like to know from them. They should not talk like this. Alleging such things on a particular religion or caste is wrong,” he said. Manoj Kumar Jha of RJD said people like Giriraj are out to damage the very social fabric of India. “They do not understand terrorism. They do not have any idea about history of India, different communities and how they have lived with each other in such beautiful terms so far. “People like him should be “disenfranchised” and parties like BJP should seriously consider that if they wish to govern India, they must check these kind of people,” he said.