Rahul should reveal names or apologise publicly: BJP

Flaying Rahul Gandhi for his statement that Pakistan's ISI is trying to lure some Muslims in riot-hit Muzaffarnagar into terrorism, BJP today demanded that he reveal the identity of such persons or apologise publicly for "defaming" the entire community.

"If indeed what he (Rahul) claims is true, let him name the people. If he can't name them, he should apologise to the nation," BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman told reporters.

Gandhi's speech intends to draw a wedge between communities and "plants seeds of hatred," she said and sought to know in what capacity the Intelligence Bureau had reported to Gandhi, who has not taken the oath of secrecy.

Countering the remarks of Union Minister Jairam Ramesh that BJP hardly has a presence in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal, Sitharaman said this held good for the Congress also.

"I want to ask him. In Tamil Nadu, the Congress can't survive a day without this and that alliance. Don't we know what the Congress has been reduced to in Kerala? Can Soniaji and Rahulji step into Andhra Pradesh? People there had voted them to power in 2004 and 2009 Assembly elections," she said.

Sitharaman also questioned the urgency to pass Food Security Bill in Parliament.
"They are running a state without declaring Emergency - I mean there is control over media; opposition have been targeted; CBI is used to attack opponents; false cases have been propped up," she added.

Asked about Ramesh's remarks that the 2014 Lok Sabha elections is a contest between Congress and RSS, Sitharaman said "until recently they were rejecting and falsely accusing the saffron outfit and today they want to fight with them?"

"Ramesh is floating 1950s and 1960s theories of suppressing everybody, but come 2014, the people of the country would reject all of these," she said.