Rahul Gandhi and Congress must apologise for falsely propagating Hindu or Saffron terror: Amit Shah

BENGALURU: BJP president Amit Shah on Wednesday accused the Congress of defaming the Hindu culture and said that Rahul Gandhi should apologise to the nation for "shaming" the country and projecting the concept of "Hindu" terror.
Citing the acquittal of five right-wing activists in the 2007 Mecca Masjid blast case, Amit Shah said, "the Congress has committed the evil of linking the great Hindu culture with terrorism".

On a two-day tour of Bengaluru division, the BJP national president, in his address to party workers, made it clear that the failure of the Congress narrative on saffron terror was going to be a poll issue.

Amit Shah’s directions to the Shakthi kendra pramukhs (poll-level leaders) comes in the wake of acquittal of Swami Aseemanand and others in the Mecca Masjid bombing case.

In his speech to the party workers, Amit Shah said: “Yesterday’s judgment in the Mecca Masjid blast proves that there is no colour to terrorism. This is the same case which AICC president Rahul Gandhi used as an example and said there was saffron terror in the nation.”

“When the blast happened, and Hindu terror was spoken about, we remained quite as the case was being heard in the court. But now the case is over and the court has said that the case completely fake and fabricated. The police caught several of our partyworkers. But now it has been proved that they were not involved and the real culprits continue to be free,” he said.

Countering the Congress, which claimed that it had never spoken about saffron terror, Amit Shah cited WikiLeaks which had published details of communication of American diplomat with Rahul Gandhi.

“On 16 December 2010, Rahul Gandhi spoke of saffron terror with the American ambassador and subsequently P Chidambaram in 2012, Sushil Kumar Shinde and Salman Khurshid in 2013 all said the same thing," Amit shah said and recalled that even Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah spoke about it on January 10 this year.

“The Congress defamed the great Hindu culture which gives the message of civil society, a message of peace and harmony. Issa mahan sabhyatha ko terrorism ke Sanath jodne ka paap Congress party ne lots hai (The congress has indulged on the evil thing of attaching the great Hindu civilisation with terrorism).I ask a simple question to Rahul and the Congress, whether it will apologise to the nation for defaming this pious religion or should the people of Karnataka force you to apologise (by throwing you out of power)?” he asked, bringing back the focus on Hindutva and Hinduism in the assembly elections scheduled on May 12.

The BJP chief directed party workers to undertake a door to door campaign to spread the message of development and publicise the good work which Prime Minister Narendra Modi, former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee and BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa have done.

“I would also appeal to the workers to take this issue of so called Hindu or Saffron terror and tell people as to how the Congress was fabricating cases and putting innocent people behind bars, in jail,” he said.

Earlier in the day, Amit Shah visited the homes of noted litterateur Chidananda Murthy and dalit writer Siddalingaiah.

Both Murthy and Siddalingaiah dropped their suggestions into a suggestions box prepared by the BJP for the purpose of creating a manifesto for the 2018 elections. While Murthy submitted his suggestions in a single page, Siddalingaiah is said to have made his suggestions in three pages.