BJP, Congress slugfest over Sohrabuddin in Gujarat
By IANSFriday, August 13, 2010
GANDHINAGAR - The Sohrabuddin Sheikh staged shootout case became the centre of a political tussle between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the main opposition Congress in Gujarat Friday with both holding parallel meetings in different parts of the state and attacking each other on the issue.
While BJP senior leader Arun Jaitley held a meeting in Ahmedabad, and other veteran leaders, Rajnath Singh in Vadodara and M. Venkaiah Naidu in Surat, senior Congress leaders in the state also held parallel meetings - former leader of the opposition Arjun Modhvadia in Ahmedabad, state unit president Sidhhartha Patel and leader of opposition Shaktisinh Gohil in Vadodara, and former chief minister Shankarsinh Waghela and former deputy chief minister Narhari Amin in Surat.
If Jaitley charged the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government with misuse of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and termed the media as stenographers of the CBI in the case, Rajnath Singh alleged that the former state minister Amit Shah was “ill-treated” by the CBI. Naidu said the Congress was making an icon out of a terrorist.
Jaitley alleged the Congress was wielding the CBI like a political weapon. Addressing Congress chief Sonia Gandhi by name, he said: “The CBI can be misused, but the CBI can not win you elections. Please remember, no political term is for ever and no government is for ever.”
Jaitley was particularly severe on the electronic media, which he said had forgotten the saying that “news is sacred” and was only interested in airing “spicy news”. He said if the media enjoyed the right to freedom of expression, the people and the viewers also had the right to demand “pure unadulterated direct news” and the media should not forget this.
The Congress leaders hit back, pointing out that Sohrabuddin had links with BJP leaders in Gujarat and in Rajasthan and not with any Congress leaders. Former union textile minister Shankersinh Vaghela and leader of the opposition Shaktisinh Gohil questioned that if the BJP knew him to be a terrorist, how come Amit Shah and other BJP leaders were using him along with the police officers for extorting money from Hindu businessmen. Gohil also pointed out that Sohrabuddin’s family was associated with the Jan Sangh and the BJP for the last 40 years.
The Congress leaders pointed out that it was the Narendra Modi government which had admitted in the Supreme Court that the 2005 Sohrabuddin shootout was a fake one. “If the encounter was justified why were so many police officers arrested by the Modi government,” they questioned.
