The Government on Tuesday hit back at Congress president Sonia Gandhi over her remarks on spike in communal violence after BJP came to power. Union Ministers Venkaiah Naidu and Jitendra Singh asked the Congress to “introspect” before making such “baseless allegations” and said not much importance should be attached to the “off the cuff” remarks.
“Congress and communalism go hand in hand. It is the Congress’ divisive politics and communal agenda which has brought the country to this,” Naidu said adding that this is why the Congress has suffered a major setback in the elections and they should introspect. Stop such baseless allegations.
Apparently referring to the recent incidents of communal clashes in Uttar Pradesh, Naidu said Gandhi should also take up the issue with SP Government which had supported it at the Centre for the last 10 years.
For his part, Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office Jitendra Singh said that he did not think “we should attach much importance to what somebody was saying” as we live in “evidence-based era of arguments”.
“The Prime Minister’s and Government’s stand on these issues (communal violence) is more than clear. The issue came up in Parliament and the Government made its position very clear. The Home Minister made a very elaborate statement in Parliament,” he said.