Hours after a special court acquitted five accused in the 2007 Mecca Mosque bomb blasts case, former Union Home Minister and senior Congress leader Shivraj Patil came up with evasive answers to queries on the “saffron terror” terminology coined during the UPA regime and also denied having used “these words”.
Avoiding steadfastly to be drawn into any controversy, the normally reticent Patil said while interacting with journalists, “Does the charge sheet say these words (saffron terror or Hindu terror)IJ Have I ever used themIJ... It is a case of terrorism”.
Patil, who was the Union Home Minister from May, 2004 to November, 2008 in the previous UPA Government, dismissed BJP’s demand for an apology from the Congress for coining the “saffron terror” during the Manmohan Singh regime: “I did not say anything like ‘terror has saffron colour’ why should I apologise”.
Earlier in the day, BJP’s spokesperson Sambit Patra had slammed the Congress for ‘defaming’ the Hindu religion by coining the words ‘saffron terror’, and demanded an apology from the Congress President Rahul Gandhi and former party chief Sonia Gandhi.
When it was pointed out to him that Congress leaders like former Union Home Ministers P Chidambaram and Sushil Kumar Shinde and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh had used words like “saffron terror”, Patil said: “You should not address this question to me....who must ask whosoever has said”.