The BJP on Wednesday said the Congress is trying to keep the 2002 Gujarat riots alive because it is “desperate and frustrated”, a day after Union Minister Salman Khurshid questioned Opposition party’s claim that Narendra Modi has been given a “clean chit” by a lower court and equated him with a nursery student getting a good grade and thinking as if he has become a doctor.
Khurshid, a senior Congress leader and a sitting MP from Farukkhabad, had earlier triggered a major row by calling Modi “impotent” for not being able to stop the post-Godhra riots.
“I don’t know who has given Modi a clean chit. A magistrate’s court has not summoned him.... It is true. It’s like a nursery child getting a good grade and thinking that he has become a doctor and goes around claiming to be a PhD. How can that happenIJ” Khurshid told reporters in Farukkhabad on Tuesday in reply to a question.
The External Affairs Minister’s comments came two days after Rahul Gandhi dismissed the talk of a clean chit to the Gujarat Chief Minister.
The Congress vice-president on Sunday demanded “legal accountability” for the “clear and inexcusable failure” of governance during the Gujarat riots and dismissed talk of clean chit to Modi as “politically expedient” but “far too premature”.
Modi and BJP leaders have claimed that the verdict by an Ahmedabad court in a 2002 riots case was a “clean chit” for him.
Khurshid also said, “In Gujarat, the incidents that happened when he (Modi) was Chief Minister, around 170 people have been given life imprisonment in connection with that. Maya Kodnani was his Minister.”
The BJP slammed Khurshid for his remarks against Modi, calling it “rubbish”.“What Salman Khurshid is saying needs to be rubbished, it is rubbish because he is denigrating the court. What is lower and higher judiciaryIJ” BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said.
Javadekar said, “They want to continue the debate but the debate would not give any result now because Muslims and all sections of the society have moved ahead in Gujarat. They want faster progress and want to give a decisive mandate. In desperation and frustration, Khurshid is using such language which we condemn.”
“Court is court and the matter was before the court and the court has given a clean chit. The SIT appointed by the Supreme Court has given a clean chit. Still they want to rake up only 2002 (riots). This is what Rahul Gandhi is doing, this is what is echoed by Salman Khurshid and other Congress leaders. This is what is being done by Aam Aadmi Party,” he added.