The Congress on Saturday came down heavily on the BJP accusing it of having "links with terrorists" and seeking an explanation from its leadership over why their activists were found to have direct or indirect connections with anti-nationals in a handful of recent incidents across the country.
At least 22 party spokespersons conducted Press conferences in an identical number of cities across the country. They asked if the activists of the nation's ruling party themselves are involved in such activities, then who is there to protect the people of the country and to safeguard national security?
Pointing out a number of recent heinous crimes, including the barbaric killing of a tailor in Rajasthan's Udaipur, the Congress leaders alleged that the connection of the accused in such incidents with the BJP had been exposed but the party leadership was continuing its silence. Congress chief spokesperson Jairam Ramesh said the aim is to counter the BJP's "fake nationalism claims" and to take the message to the grassroots level that the ruling party has "connections" with individuals who have indulged in heinous crimes and terror acts.
"Today, 22 of our senior leaders and spokespersons held Press conferences in 22 cities to expose the "links of terrorists with BJP"," Ramesh tweeted, alleging that "evidence of terrorists having links with the BJP has come out".
"The BJP has links with terrorists, what is this relationship called?" he posed in the tweet.
Congress has alleged that Riyaz Attari, one of the prime accused in the killing of tailor Kanhaiya Lal in Rajasthan's Udaipur, was a BJP member.
It has also released his photographs purportedly with BJP leaders in Rajasthan. The BJP, however, has denied any link with such elements and claimed that some of them had clicked pictures with its leaders after infiltrating the party ranks. "If a ruling party, that too a self-styled nationalist and patriotic party, has relationship...Links with the terror activities, all of us are in danger...The country is in danger...The people are in danger. And it is important for all of us to ask straight questions to the
BJP as to why this nexus exists," Dsouju Sravan said at the Thiruvananthapuram Press conference.
Congress also claimed that Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist Talib Hussain Shah who was nabbed by people in Reasi town in Srinagar recently was an office-bearer of the BJP's minority cell in Jammu and Kashmir, a charge denied by the BJP leadership in the Union Territory.
Calling reports about "terrorists and criminals" having links with BJP a matter of concern for country, Congress MP Deepender Singh Hooda said saffron party needs to introspect as to how such elements were finding their way into the party fold.
"We feel sorry that the people who conspire to damage the country are getting a place in BJP.
It is a national party and is in power in the country. For the BJP, it should be a matter of deep introspection," Hooda told reporters at Ahmedabad.