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New Delhi:
While the Congress said on Saturday, the police charge-sheet in
the 2007 Ajmer blast establishes Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)
leaders' involvement in alleged acts of terror, the Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) termed it as a political conspiracy to defame
nationalist organizations.
"The charge-sheet is a manifestation
of "the bigoted worldview of RSS", Congress spokesperson Manish
Tewari said referring to the involvement of the RSS leader in the
Ajmer blast.
"Right from its inception till today, except for assaulting the
pluralistic idea of India, the RSS has done nothing else for the
Indian nation. So it is high time that they introspected about
their core ideology and the violence and the sectarianism it
spawns."
"Today you have conclusive and clinching evidence in the form of a
documented challan filed in a court of law which prima facie
establishes involvement of RSS leaders in alleged acts of terror,"
he said.
"They also need to introspect as to how their involvement impacts
the moral position of India vis-à-vis terrorism that we have
occupied for the last 30 years," Tewari said.
He said India's position on cross-border terrorism is largely
accepted by the world now. "When you have such bigotry on display,
it does, to some extent undermine the moral position. To that
extent involvement of the RSS and their affiliates is definitely
anti-national," he said.
Answering queries about the name of Indersh Kumar not being among
the accused in the case, he said that the scale of involvement
will become clear as the trial proceeds.
The BJP, however, is not convinced
and says the
police charge-sheet in the Ajmer blast case is a 'political
conspiracy' to 'defame the RSS'.
"It is a political conspiracy to
defame the nationalist organizations. The charge-sheet does not
name the RSS. It is surprising to link it to the RSS," BJP
spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman said.
She said the charge-sheet has wrongly described some people as "pracharaks"
(official).
"Were they 'pracharaks' on the day the charge-sheet has been
filed," she asked.
On the role of Abhinav Bharat, a radical Hindu group, she said the
BJP had nothing to do with the organization.
Asked about the Rajasthan Police charge-sheet mentioning the name
of RSS leader Indresh Kumar, Sitharaman said that his name had
been "included without credible evidence".
"The charge-sheet says he participated in a secret meeting. Is it
substantial," she said.
Sitharaman indicated that Indresh Kumar would use legal remedies
available to him to get his name cleared.
Referring to a convention in Delhi Monday in which Kashmiri
separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani took part, she said the
government had taken no action against those who spoke against the
integrity of the country while it was trying to defame the
nationalist organizations.
Rajasthan Police's Anti-Terrorist
Squad (ATS) Friday filed a charge-sheet in a court in Ajmer and
said that a senior RSS leader (Indresh Kumar) was present when the
conspiracy to carry out a blast at the Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti
shrine in Ajmer was hatched.
However, Indresh Kumar has not been named as an accused in the
charge-sheet.
Holding supporters of Abhinav Bharat
responsible for the Oct 11, 2007 blast, in which three people were
killed and 30 injured, the ATS has charged Devendra Gupta, Lokesh
Sharma, Chander Shekhar Lave, Sandeep Dange and Ramji Kalsangre
with murder, attempt to murder, conspiracy, harming or defiling
place of worship and other crimes.
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