New Delhi

Seeking to turn the heat on Congress, BJP today demanded a thorough probe into the alleged change of affidavits during the UPA rule in the Ishrat Jehan case and charged former Home Minister P Chidambaram with saving the accused.

BJP also accused Congress of siding with “anti-national” forces “who are out to break the nation” and asked its leaders Rahul Gandhi and P Chidambaram whether they had any sympathy for the country that gave them everything.

“Former Union Home Minister P Chidambaram is caught in a separate (issue), what I believe is going to be a scandal. As the former Home Secretary has revealed, Ishrat Jehan’s name and connection with LeT were deliberately removed from the government report.

“On behalf of the party, I hope and wish there is a formal inquiry which fully establishes the truth. I feel there should be a thorough probe as to what really had happened and the truth should come out,” BJP spokesperson M J Akbar told reporters.

Training his guns on Chidambaram, he charged him with “saving” the terrorists, and said, he was trying to “save” Afzal Guru, Parliament attack convict already hanged, even today.

He alleged that the Minister was trying to save an accused by changing his own government’s report and “there is a lot of anger in the country”.

“What game are you playing? What fire are you playing with? Are you not with the country that gave you everything? Don’t you have any sympathy with the country that gave you everything, the country of which you have remained Home Minister and Finance Minister?” he asked while referring to former Home Secretary G K Pillai’s remarks.

Attacking the Congress vice president, he said, “Rahul Gandhi, you have no sympathy with the country of which you want to become a leader one day. You are seen moving shoulder to shoulder with those who want to break the country and are anti-national.”

Questioned about the timing of Pillai’s remarks on Ishrat case and if he was siding with BJP, Akbar said “Pillai is not supporting us, he is only supporting the truth. As a Home Secretary, he was in the know of everything and an eyewitness.

He said the LeT connection of Ishrat was removed from the affidavit.”

On Pillai’s decision to speak out now, the BJP leader said “The point is, nobody knew what he knew. This is a decision that Mr Pillai made for himself. We can’t control why and how he chose to do so. The fact of the matter is why are we being deflected from the reality.”

He said “The point is, what he (Pillai) is saying, is it a truth or not.”

Pillai had said the decision to change the affidavit was taken at the “political level”.

Swamy urges govt to file contempt plea against PC

Lucknow

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy today suggested the Centre to file a contempt petition against former Home Minister P Chidambaram for allegedly filing a wrong affidavit in the Ishrat Jahan case.

“I will request the Centre to file a contempt petition against Chidambaram. If it does not file it, I will do so,” Swamy told reporters here.

Citing the then home secretary G K Pillai, Swami said as Home Minister in 2009, Chidambaram had got the Centre’s affidavit changed in the Ishrat Jahan case to drop any reference to her Lashkar-e-Taiba links.

“If Chidambaram says he had got the affidavit changed on the directions of Sonia Gandhi, she can also be made a co-accused,” he said.

On daily hearing of Ayodhya Ram Temple case, Swamy said he had spoken to All India Muslim Personal Law Board’s Shahabuddin Ansari and AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi and they are ready for it.

“If it is started, hearing will be completed within a month and decision would come. I hope the Supreme Court will go by the Allabahad High Court decision. Former PM Narsimha Rao had given an affidavit that if it is proved there was temple on the disputed site, it would be given to Hindus,” Swamy said.

He also praised HRD Minister Smriti Irani’s speech in Parliament and said she was being criticised for the “good speech”.

Reiterating his demand for renaming JNU after Subhas Chandra Bose, Swamy said the university should be closed for four months after examinations.

Rijiju hits out at Cong over Pillai’s statement in Ishrat case

New Delhi

Union Minister Kiren Rijiju today accused the Congress of being sympathetic towards terrorists and separatists saying statement of former Home Secretary G K Pillai on controversial Ishrat Jahan case “reflects true intention and mindset” of the party.

“It’s a tragedy for India that Congress party is proved to be a sympathetic party of the terrorists and separatists.

“The disclosure of the facts by former Home Secretary G K Pillai depicts the true intention and mindset of the Congress party as to how much UPA government went out of way to protect a Lashkar-e-Taiba aide,” he said in a statement here.

Rijiju was reacting to Pillai’s reported statement claiming that as Home Minister during UPA government, Congress leader P Chidambaram had recalled the file a month after the orginial affidavit, which described Ishrat and her slain aides as LeT operatives, was filed in SC.

“Only after the affidavit was revised, as directed by the Minister, did the file come to me,” Pillai is quoted as saying by a media report.

The Union Minister of State for Home alleged that Chidambaram had shown Congress’ sympathy for Parliament attack case convict Afzal Guru and his acts “by even criticising the judicial process”.

Rijiju claimed that another senior Minister of UPA government had openly and proudly disclosed how Congress President “Sonia Gandhi cried for the killed terrorists of Batla house encounter”.

The Minister alleged that “going one step further Rahul Gandhi has openly supported the separatists and Maoists” by joining their sponsored protests in JNU campus.

“Congress Party will be directly responsible for the growth of all terrorists organisations in India.

“It’s time for Congress party to apologise before the nation for humiliating martyrs and their family members,” he said.

Congress using terrorism for vote bank politics: Venkaiah Naidu

Chennai

Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu today accused the Congress of using terrorism for votebank politics and slammed its leader P Chidambaram for his comments on Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.

“Does Afzal Guru has religion? Terrorism has no religion.

He is a terrorist. A terrorist is a terrorist. He has no language, no religion. But unfortunately, treating minorities as a vote bank. Congress is using even terrorism for vote bank politics,” he told reporters here.

He cited similar controversies like the Ishrat Jahan and Batla House encounters to target the Congress.

He referred to former Union Home Secretary G K Pillai’s statement that the controversial change in the Ishrat Jahan case affidavit was done at the “political level” to flay the Congress leader.

“These revelations clearly show the dirty politics of UPA and Congress party that they are ready to compromise even national security to continue their political vendetta against their rivals,” Naidu said.

Accused in Mumbai blast case David Headley confirmed Ishrat Jahan was terrorist and LeT website also had condoled her death, he said. An earlier affidavit by the Centre had said she was a terrorist. However, the subsequent affidavit was changed, he said, adding, “they demoralised the CBI, IB.”

Similarly, former Union Minister Salman Kurshid had said in 2012 that Sonia Gandhi was “very sad” over the encounter.

“After four years (of Batla House encounter), Congress tried to take advantage in elections and Salman Kurshid said during poll campaign that Sonia Gandhiji was very sad over the encounter,” Naidu said.

“To use that for sympathy is an insult to minorities. What to do, minorities have nothing to do with that encounter or terrorism,” he said.

Now it is the turn of former Union Home and Finance Minister P Chidambaram, he said. “Having been at the helm of affairs, the former Home Minister, and supposed to be the most intelligent person in Congress party finds fault with Supreme Court (over Afzal Guru’s hanging). He is a leading lawyer, finds fault with Supreme Court with the hanging on Afzal Guru,” he alleged.

Claiming to quote Chidambaram, he said the former Minister had said that “perhaps Afzal Guru’s hanging was not a correct decision.”

“The highest court to anybody’s knowledge is the Supreme Court. But there is another Supreme Court of Congress party presided by Chidambaram which says Afzal Guru’s hanging was not a correct decision.”

Quoting anti-Indian slogans allegedly raised in JNU, Naidu said “they say justice is not done to Afzal Guru as if he is their Guru, they are extending solidarity with the people who are raising slogans like Maqbool Bhat Zindabad, how can anybody express solidarity with such people and that is the question?.”

On February 25, Chidambaram had told an English daily that “one can hold an honest opinion that the case was not correctly decided and the degree of involvement of Afzal Guru was not correctly assessed.”

“If someone holds that opinion, he doesn’t become an anti-national. He’s just holding a different opinion,” he had said.

Afzal Guru’s wife Tabasum Guru had dismissed the view as “too late and aimed at vote bank politics.”

Distancing itself from Chidambaram’s views, Congress had said, the decision of the Supreme Court was final.

“It is futile to reopen this debate since the matter has attained judicial finality. Every citizen and instrumentality of the government is bound in law to accept the judgment of the final court,” party spokesman Ashwani Kumar had said.

On Chidambaram’s view that there was a sense of insecurity among minorities, Naidu said, “Is Mr Chidambaram pose himself as champion of minorities? Chidambaramji, it is the Congress which is feeling insecure and hence creating fear psychosis among minorities spoiling the social fabric of the country.”

Naidu alleged that Congress was always soft on terrorists and hard on nationalists.

“They abolished TADA Act. They gave certificate to Bhindranwale, encouraged and later condemned him, made him villain and sent army to Golden Temple.” PTI