BJP denies saffron terror charges, says govt bid to shift focus from corruption

Guwahati : Hiding its discomfiture over the fast unraveling of terror links of Hindu right-wing groups, the BJP on Saturday painted the revelations as a deliberate attempt by the UPA to divert focus from its corruption woes. Meanwhile, the RSS took the government head on as its senior functionary Indresh Kumar —himself under the scanner — dashed off a legal notice to the CBI, accusing it of deliberately leaking Aseemanand’s confession.

In his closed-door address to the BJP national executive, party chief Nitin Gadkari is learnt to have spoken extensively about saffron terror, claiming that false charges are being leveled against the RSS and Kumar by the CBI, the “trusted partner” of the Congress.

He sought to link the charges with the party’s battle against the UPA over corruption. “The government is misusing the CBI to target nationalist forces,” he reportedly said. He said that Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi have entrusted Digvijaya Singh to mount the offensive against the Sangh. He also sought to dub Congress and Singh’s statements against Hindu radical groups as an attack on the Hindu community.

Interestingly, the text of his speech said that within the Congress, “there are elements who hobnob with the Naxals, pamper those who see India as an encroacher in J&K and try to play with the sensibilities of majority community by blowing up the threat of peripheral groups to rake up the so-called Hindu terrorism”.

He said the UPA was compromising the war on terror by “undermining the threat from one group and demonising the other”. In a reference to the WikiLeaks cable on Rahul, he said, “Can some UPA leaders be so callous and irresponsible so as to deal with terrorism in a crass partisan manner, their facts based on inconclusive investigations, even while sharing assessments with foreign diplomats?”

Meanwhile, the legal notice sent to CBI officer T Rajah Balaji on behalf of Kumar accused him of leaking Aseemanand’s statement thus allowing wide publicity to Kumar’s “alleged delegation to Sunil Joshi”, maliciously suggesting his involvement.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/bjp-denies-saffron-terror-charges-says-govt-bid-to-shift-focus-from-corruption/735145/