Thiruvananthapuram, July 22;Stoutly refuting the claim made by Congress general secretary Shakeel Ahmed that the 2002 Gujarat riots led to the creation of terror outfit Indian Mujahideen, BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar on Monday said the argument was factually, logically and historically incorrect.
Reacting to Mr. Ahmed’s tweet that riots was the reason behind the creation of IM, Mr. Javadekar said the terror outfit was just an ISI-planned activity aided and abetted by Pakistan.
“The Congress claim is factually, logically and historically wrong. ISI’s terror modules change their names frequently. Earlier, it was SIMI and when it was banned, another outfit came in its place,” told reporters.
He said SIMI had operated in the country for 12 years since the early nineties. Through such outfits, Pakistan merely wanted to prove that what they were carrying out was not outside terror, but a home-grown movement.
“Pakistan justifies terror in India. Unfortunately, the Congress also justifies it in the garb of attacking BJP,” Mr. Javadekar said.
He wanted the Congress not to make security aspect an agenda for political discourse which would ultimately hurt the nation’s interests.
To a question whether RSS was trying to make Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, Mr. Javadekar said RSS did neither dictate BJP nor did it conduct the party proceedings. “BJP and RSS have a symbiotic relationship and we do consult each other as our ideology is the same,” he said.
The BJP leader said it is true that there is growing demand from various sections of people to make Mr. Modi the prime ministerial candidate as he had become an icon for “non-corrupt good governance. Mr. Modi will lead us in the 2014 elections,” the BJP leader said.
Mr. Javadekar alleged that corruption had become the culture of Congress all over the country.
Citing examples of scams relating to VVIP helicopters, 2G, real estate, river cleaning projects and coal, Mr. Javadekar said the Congress had practically looted the “Pancha Mahabhootas” — the sky, air, earth, water and fire.”
On the solar scam rocking Kerala for the last few weeks, he said the BJP would raise the issue in the coming session of Parliament.
Taking exception to Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy’s statement that it was comparatively a smaller scam involving only Rs. 15 crore, he said the question was not that of the amount involved.
“It has come to light that the entire office of the Chief Minister was patronising the fraudsters,” he said.
He said the Congress should not forget the fact that the party was punished by the people for Rs. 64 crore Bofors scam and kept them out of office for about 10 years.
The issue would be raised in Parliament through all means as there was a central subsidy to solar projects. In Gujarat, Mr. Narendra Modi was using the subsidy to create solar power, while in Kerala a few were pocketing it, he alleged.
