BJP seeks sacking of Shinde over terror remark

Comment an insult to Hindus, say RSS, BJP

The BJP on Monday demanded sacking of Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde for commenting that the party and the RSS promoted “Hindu terrorism” and dubbed him a light weight minister.

BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said at a press conference on Monday that the party would launch a nationwide protest on Thursday against the remark which they perceived was an “insult of India’s spiritual and cultural heritage.” 

The RSS did not spare Shinde either as their spokesperson Ram Madhav mockingly described him as a “darling of real terrorists” in his latest tweet. Pakistan-based JuD, the umbrella organisation of banned Lashkar-e-Toiba, has “congratulated” Shinde on the remark made at the Jaipur conclave on Sunday.

“I condemn it strongly and very forcefully. It was a malicious and baseless comment by a light weight home minister who does not know what he is talking about,” the BJP charged.

In Lucknow, party chief Nitin Gadkari said Shinde’s remark had “humiliated” the entire Hindu community and sought an apology from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.

“Shinde's remark reflects madness. It has humiliated the entire Hindu community. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress leader Sonia Gandhi should apologise to the country for the remark,” Gadkari said in Lucknow while addressing a public meeting here.

Prasad charged the Congress with playing vote-bank politics.He referred to earlier controversial statements of Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh when he referred most wanted person JuD chief as “Hafiz Saeed Sahib” and slain al-Qaeda chief as “Osamaji”.

Prasad claimed that the party never stopped the government from taking action against some old RSS members participating in terror attacks even in the Samjhauta Express blast case.

“Terrorism is terrorism” and it was wrong to call it saffron terror or Hindu terror. “While saffron is beacon of India’s spiritual and religious heritage, it is wrong to call Hindu terror as in case of Muslim terror,” he said.

RSS spokesperson Ram Madhav termed Shinde’s remarks “insensitive” and “unpardonable.”

He tweeted: “Today, Jamaat ud Dawa  congratulated Shinde. Now, he has become the darling of real terrorists. It is Shinde who is helping our enemies by such statements. Now, even the LeT has welcomed his statement I am told.”

Though Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath and AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh, a known RSS baiter, did not find anything wrong in Shinde’s statement, the then home minister P Chidambaram was the first United Progressive Alliance (UPA) minister to call it Hindu terror inviting huge uproar.

  BJP spokesperson said the Congress had officially “rebuffed” Chidambaram on August 28, 2010, for making such a remark. Will they do that again to ensure that Shinde eats his own word?

But, the BJP was not keen on taking the minister to the court. When asked will the party drag Shinde to court as Gadkari had done on a defamatory remark against him by Digvijay Singh, Prasad said that any member could file a petition in court.