Congress, BJP in war of words over attack on Rahul's convoy

A war of words broke out between the Congress and the BJP over attack on Rahul Gandhi's car in Gujarat's Banaskantha district.

 Condemnation of the attack poured in from across the country with former prime minister Manmohan Singh asserting that political violence has no place in a functioning democracy.

 “This is being deliberately done by the BJP to create an atmosphere of fear in Gujarat just before the assembly elections,” Ghulam Nabi Azad, the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha said in a statement here.

 The BJP hit back at the Congress wondering whether the opposition party had stage-managed the attack. “We don't know whether the attack was real or orchestrated,” BJP General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya said.

 BJP spokesman Sambit Patra said it was incorrect for the Congress to claim that the attack was carried out by goons.

 “For God's sake, don't call people goons. Don't call public of this country as rowdy elements, people who are suffering from floods, people who are tired of this kind of politics that Rahul Gandhi and his party are doing. Let's respect people's emotions,” Patra told reporters.

 AICC spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said this attack has to be condemned and seen for what it is an authoritarian, dictatorial regime which brooks no dissent.

 “Do they think that by doing this absolute dramatics, this undemocratic act of violence they are able to cow down or intimidate anybody,” Singhvi asked.

 “Violence and physical attack have become BJP's culture. Congress and Rahulji get more determined to raise people's voice after every attack,” Randeep Singh Surjewala, AICC chief spokesman, said.

 Singhvi said Rahul's convoy was attacked with cement bricks when he was surveying flood-hit region of Dhanera in Banaskantha district.