A day after the police encounter of alleged SIMI terrorists, the political slugfest between the Government and the BJP and Opposition continued on Tuesday.
While Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh questioned why only Muslim prisoners break jail and not Hindus and demanded that the NIA should probe into this aspect as well, the left parties raised doubts over NIA’s credibility and demanded a judicial probe saying there were discrepancies in the statements of MP Government and police. BSP supremo Mayawati too demanded a judicial probe and accused the MP Government of using police for fulfilling the RSS agenda.
The Government on its part hit out at Opposition with Union Ministers Venkaiah Naidu, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Krien Rijiju condemning such statements. Naidu said these people are concerned about the SIMI terrorists and their religion but not about the menace they created/Prasad sought Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s official line on this issue and if Digvijay’s remarks has been supported by Congress.
Digvijay led the Opposition saying that the NIA probe should be court-monitored and called for a separate judicial probe into “why only undertrial activists of SIMI and Muslims were involved in jailbreaks” in Madhya Pradesh.
He recalled that in 2013, SIMI activists had escaped from Khandwa prison and claimed that information about a possible jailbreak was provided to the State Chief Secretary but no action was taken and a jailbreak happened on October 31.
The ruling BJP said political parties should stop questioning police and people should be speaking “in one voice” on the matter of national security and charged opposition of “politicising and communalising” the issue.
“I am at loss to understand why some people are more concerned about terrorists. Some people are concerned about SIMI, some are concerned about people who have escaped from jail. These people (opposition) are showing more concern towards people who break law, rather than showing concern about the safety and security of India,” Naidu said claiming that it has become a "fashion" for some people to question the security forces.
“What is communalIJ Four-five days back on Andhra Pradesh-Odisha border about 28 to 29 Maoists were killed, nobody talked about their community or religion. Suddenly in this case (Bhopal) the religion has come. This is all cheap politics. I appeal to all to avoid politics take care of security and safety of the country,” Naidu said.
While Prasad also criticized opposition on the issue saying in the matter of nation's security, "people must speak with one voice", Rijiju said raising doubts and questioning the police should stop as no conclusion should be drawn on the basis of videos only. Rijiju said facts will come out soon and decried the "habit" of raising doubts and questioning the authorities and police in such incidents.
The left parties sought to know how these men could have escaped from a high security Bhopal central jail and stated the Shivraj Singh Chouhan dispensation owes "full explanation" about how the prison security could be breached.
"In the light of these concerns, the Politburo demands a judicial enquiry headed by a sitting judge be constituted to conduct a thorough investigation. The Chief Minister has announced that an enquiry would be conducted by the NIA. Such an enquiry would neither be credible nor acceptable," it said.
Party general secretary Sitaram Yechury reiterated the concerns and insisted the Centre and the BJP hold the state government responsible for "its actions".
The CPI too pitched for a "high-level" judicial probe into the matter and appealed people to understand the "sinister design" of BJP-RSS, which it alleged was trying to politicise the fight against terror.
Mayawati charged that police is misused for political and communal motives in BJP-ruled states. "Its visible that police is misused for political and communal motives in BJP ruled states. Police had saved Vyapam scam, which had taken many lives, accused in MP. Only after SC intervention the matter was handed over to the CBI. MP government is using police for fulfilling RSS agenda," said the BSP supremo.