Bjp Adopting Double Standards: Mann

[lsingh]

Malegaon Blasts

BJP adopting double standards: Mann

Amarjit Thind

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, November 17

The Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP), by seeking to defend those arrested in Malegaon blasts and urging people not to refer to them as Hindu terrorists, was adopting double standards.

SAD (A) chief Simranjit Singh Mann today said this was the same party that had never left any opportunity to label such elements among Sikhs and Muslims as terrorists and separatists. Recent statements of BJP leaders L.K. Advani and Venkaiah Naidu in this context were examples of hypocrisy, he pointed out.

Why was Advani perturbed when the word Hindu terrorists was used after the involvement of some Hindus in the recent bomb blasts. Where was he when words like Sikh and Muslim terrorists were used making the whole community responsible for the misdeeds of a few of its people, he questioned.

He said when a ban can be imposed on minority organisations allegedly involved in any anti-national activities, why the same could not be done in case of Hindu organisations involved in similar activities.

Ironically, these organisations were now on the defensive and in fact collecting money to help Sadhvi Pragya Thakur and the other accused in the blasts, he said.

The alleged involvement of Lt Col Shrikant Purohit in the Malegaon and other blasts has proved that the cells of the BJP and the RSS had penetrated the Indian Army, which was a serious matter for the minorities in the country, he added.

He said the government should order an inquiry to weed out more sleeper cells in the forces so that individuals owing allegiance to right wing Hindutva forces should be exposed and the damage contained.

Mann said the Centre and Punjab should be made accountable for smuggling of arms and ammunition and drugs from Pakistan into the state despite surveillance of so many security agencies along the Punjab border with Pakistan.

He said the government should also provide insurance cover to its employees, especially the police, which had been sent for election duty in Jammu and Kashmir and Naxal-infested areas.

The former MP also said the party would contest 10 Lok Sabha seats. The candidates were being finalised and it was yet to be ascertained whether he would contest from Sangrur or not. The issue was before the party, he added.

The search was also on for candidates for Hoshiarpur, Gurdaspur and Jalandhar, he said.