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. 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 in New Delhi.
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. PTI
