NEW DELHI: It’s a full-blown war of words between the Congress and the BJP after an SIT probing the
2002 Gujarat riots
said in court that a conspiracy to malign the state’s and Narendra Modi’s image was hatched at the behest of late Congress leader
Ahmed Patel
.
BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said that Patel was really a front for Sonia Gandhi who hatched and funded a plot to end the political career of then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi.
The Congress refuted the charge, directly targeting PM Modi. “The prime minister’s political vendetta machine clearly does not even spare the departed who were his political adversaries,” read a statement by party spokesperson Jairam Ramesh. It accused the SIT of acting on orders of its “political masters.”
The SIT affidavit also accused activist Teesta Setalvad of conniving with the Congress to implicate Modi and the BJP.
“Setalvad held a meeting with Ahmed Patel and received Rs 5 lakh at the first instance. Two days later, they met at the Circuit House at Shahibaug in Ahmedabad, where she received Rs 25 lakh more from Patel,” it said. The SIT also claimed that Setalvad and others met other political leaders of the Congress later “to implicate senior leaders of the BJP government in Gujarat”.
Citing the SIT affidavit, BJP’s Patra said the Congress appears to be keeping various kinds of denials ready and releasing them by changing dates.
“We want Sonia Gandhi to hold a press conference and address the nation as to why she was conspiring against Modi,” he said.
She hatched a conspiracy to malign Gujarat and corner Modi with an aim to damage him and the BJP to promote her son Rahul Gandhi, Patra claimed.
Patra noted that Setalvad, who has been pursuing Gujarat riots cases, was given Padma Shri and also made a member of the National Advisory Council when the Congress-led UPA was in power. Sonia Gandhi was behind this as she was happy with her work, he alleged.
“Patel is just a name. The driving force behind this conspiracy was Sonia Gandhi,” he claimed.
Defending Patel, the Congress claimed that the charges levelled against him are part of Modi’s “systematic strategy to absolve himself of any responsibility for communal carnage” unleashed when he was the chief minister.
Jairam Ramesh’s statement also referred to the famous ‘rajdharma’ remark of former PM the late Atal Bihari Vajpayee “It was his (Modi’s) unwillingness and incapacity to control this carnage that led the then Prime Minister of India Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee to remind the chief minister of his rajdharma,” it said.
