BJP alleges Rahul’s conspiracy, Cong hits back

With the Supreme Court rejecting the plea for a probe into the death of Judge BH Loya, the Government as well as the BJP on Thursday came down heavily on the Congress and its president Rahul Gandhi demanding his apology to the nation for trying to settle political scores through the judiciary. The Congress, however, remained unfazed saying that it was a sad day and that it still held that the case needed a thorough probe.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said the verdict sent out a clear message that the judiciary cannot be “misled” by allegations based on political vendetta. “The Supreme Court has also cautioned against the misuse of courts in political tug of war,” Rajnath’s tweets mentioned that several attempts have been made to target top BJP leaders through “fake news”.

A number of senior BJP leaders blasted the Congress and Rahul and sought his apology for what they described as attempt to use the judiciary for a political battle aimed at “character assassination” of ruling party president Amit Shah. The BJP alleged the “invisible hand” behind the pleas was of Rahul as part of “a conspiracy to finish the political career” of Amit Shah.

Attacking the BJP for accusing Rahul of being the “invisible hand” behind the petitions seeking the probe, the Congress termed the allegations as a “malicious attempt”, which showed the ruling party’s “jitteriness”. “It is a sad letter day in India’s history. The suspicious circumstances in which Loya died, was a matter of deep concern for those who have faith in the judiciary.

The copy of the entire judgment is not yet available. But there are still questions before those who believe in the judiciary,” Congress chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala said.

Addressing a Press conference after the SC verdict, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the Congress and its chief Rahul Gandhi conspired to target Shah as it believes that only one family had a right to rule the country.

“It was a conspiracy by the Congress and its chief Rahul to finish the political career of Shah, as part of which wrong accusations were made and an over 100-strong delegation was taken to the President,” Prasad said.

Prasad was unsparing in his attack on Rahul and wondered if he wanted to enhance his party’s political standing by seeking recourse to the corridors of courts by making them “a political battleground with politically-vested litigations”.

Prasad said the party had kept quiet so far on the issue was it “wanted the law to take its own course”. “The Congress has been unmasked today,” he said. To a query about questions raised by the Congress following the order, he said some people accept the court’s verdict only when it suits them but the decision of the Supreme Court is final.

BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said that the public interest litigations (PILs) seeking a probe into Loya’s death were like “political interest litigations”. Patra said the Congress chief should be “ashamed” for what he described as a conspiracy to target Shah, the Indian judiciary and the country’s democracy.

“The Congress engages in all sorts of conspiracies after its ruling family loses power,” Patra alleged and added that the attempt to use judiciary for political purposes was a “new low” in Indian politics.

The BJP leader further alleged that the pleas were filed to settle political scores as the Congress was incapable of taking on Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the electoral field.

Joining the attack on the Congress, Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said the party failed to “destroy” the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and Shah, when it was in power at the Centre. “Now in Opposition, the Congress was conspiring to defame the BJP’s top leadership,” he said.

However, the Congress raised 10 questions relating to the case as Surjewala criticised the verdict and noted that issue of criminality can be decided only through a probe, contending that no investigation was done into the death of Loya, who was hearing the high-profile Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case.

“In this background, the BJP’s attempt to make false capital out of the Supreme Court judgment must be condemned with strongest possible words,” he added.

Surjewala also stressed that the Congress was not among the petitioners seeking a probe into the judge’s death and recalled that the party had instead approached the “people’s court” and approached President Ram Nath Kovind along with 14 other Opposition parties. 

 “The BJP’s attempt to misinterpret the Supreme Court judgment reflects their jitteriness and frustration. We reject and condemn the malicious attempts of the BJP to misinterpret the judgment for finger pointing,” he said.

Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that the court’s verdict dismissing the pleas seeking an independent probe into Loya’s death will raise more questions and leave many of them unanswered unless logical reasons were found in it.