BJP accuses Congress leader of ‘vote bank’ politics

NEW DELHI - The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Thursday criticised Congress leader Digvijay Singh, who reportedly questioned the Batla House shoot-out in Delhi after meeting the family of an alleged Indian Mujahideen (IM) operative, for resorting to “vote bank politics”.

“This was the worst manifestation of vote bank politics. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) conducted an inquiry into it and found that all allegations are wrong. Even the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court dismissed a PIL demanding a judicial inquiry into the matter,” BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters here.

He said that if Congress leaders think that they will get votes of all Muslims by visiting house of families of terrorists, they were “utterly irresponsible”.

Prasad noted that the government had given Ashok Chakra gallantry medal to Delhi Police Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma, who was killed in Batla House gun battle, and now Digvijay Singh was questioning the incident.

“We want to ask the prime minister, the home minister and Congress president Sonia Gandhi to explain this position,” he said.

Singh visited Sanjarpur town of Uttar Pradesh’s Azamgarh district Wednesday to meet the family members of the two alleged IM operatives Atif and Chhota Sajid, killed during the September 2008 Batla House shoot-out.

While Singh met Sajid’s family, members of Atif’s family refused to meet him, saying they would meet Singh or Congress leaders only after their demand to carry out a judicial enquiry into the shoot-out was met.

Though Singh did not assure them of a judicial inquiry into the incident, he said he would try his best to get an inquiry by the National Investigating Agency (NIA).

Prasad said innocent people were killed in terrorist attacks in Uttar Pradesh and Mumbai, but Congress leaders had not visited their homes.

“I want to ask how many families of those innocent people were visited by them. What message are they giving?” he added.