With Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi leading the charge, Union Ministers Kapil Sibal and Salman Khurshid stepped up attack on the BJP and its prime ministerial candidate. While Sibal maintained that the Supreme Court should have handed over the probe of Gujarat riots to an independent agency and not to a powerless SIT, Khurshid accused RSS of killing Mahatma Gandhi -- charges which were levelled by Rahul recently.
It was on Friday that the Congress had raked up the ‘maut ka saudagar’ jibe, which had boomeranged in 2007, and on the same day Rahul too reiterated his allegation that the RSS killed the Father of Nation.
Sibal, who is re-contesting the Chandni Chowk lok Sabha seat, on Saturday said, “like in corruption cases, the Supreme Court should have handed over Gujarat riots probe to an independent agency as the SIT had little powers to arrest or carry out searches.”
Rahul had also in a recent interview demanded “legal accountability” for the “clear and inexcusable failure” of governance under Modi during the violence, and dismissed talk of a clean chit to Modi as “politically expedient” but “far too premature”.
“While importance is being given to monitor corruption-related cases, I think to keep humanity alive, the Supreme Court should have monitored all cases related to Gujarat riots through an independent investigation agency. It is sad,” Sibal said at a Press conference.
Sibal said the SIT came into being in 2008, six years after the riots. “But who were the officers involved in SIT. They were the police officers under whose jurisdiction riots took place in the State... The SIT had no powers to search, no powers to investigate like CBI. It only recorded statements of witnesses,” he said. He said under such circumstances, “the victims could not have got justice”.
He made it clear that he was making these remarks as a Congress leader and a lok Sabha candidate and not as the law Minister of the country. “Till the time, the SC decides to seek details on each and every death, people of Gujarat cannot get justice. We do not trust the Gujarat administration as 25 of its police officials are in jail over fake encounter. Under law, there cannot be two FIRs for the same crime. The Gujarat police registered FIRs on its own, therefore, the victims could not lodge their FIRs and name those responsible for the riots,” Sibal alleged.
When asked why he did not rake up the issue earlier, the Congress leader said he had appeared for the victims in court. He said while he is not making any allegation, the needle of suspicion points towards the Gujarat administration.
After Rahul accused the RSS of killing Mahatma Gandhi, Khurshid arrived with a new version that may add fuel to the ongoing controversy. Khurshid said that just after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi the RSS volunteers celebrated the occasion by distributing sweets in their homes. He also said Sardar Patel, India’s first Home Minister, had imposed a ban on the Sangh. Rahul had levelled the charges against RSS in his rallies in Maharashtra and Himchal Pradesh.