New Delhi, July 31
The government and the
opposition locked horns in the Lok Sabha on Friday, with Home Minister
Rajnath Singh accusing the Congress of coining the term "Hindu
terrorism" and weakening the fight against terror.
The Congress hit back and alleged that "RSS and BJP attempted to link terror with religion".
Making
a statement in the house on the terror attack in Dinanagar town in
Gurdaspur district of Punjab on July 27, Rajnath Singh took digs at the
Congress and said the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance
government "diluted the issue of terrorism and Sharm-al-Sheikh and
Havana".
"I am surprised that the opposition is not ready to
discuss the important issue of terrorism. I never expected the
opposition to be divided on such an important issue. On the one side,
our soldiers are getting martyred and, on the other, the opposition is
divided on an important issue such as terrorism," Singh said towards the
end of his statement on the Dinanagar terror attack.
Amid uproar, the home minister recited a couplet and said it reflected the security policy and foreign policy of the Congress.
"Cheen
chheen desh ka gulab le gaya, Tashkand me vatan ka lal so gaya; Yeh
sulah ki shakal ko sanvarate rahe, jeetane ke baad baazi harte rahe.
(China took away the rose of the country, country's son [Lal Bahadur
Shastri] died in Tashkent. They [Congress] kept improving terms of
engagement and kept losing the initiative despite winning)," Rajnath
Singh said.
The minister's remarks came amid a stalemate between
the Congress and treasury benches over the opposition's demand for the
resignations of three BJP leaders facing controversies over the Lalit
Modi and Vyapam issues.
The Congress is demanding the
resignations of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan chief
minister Vasundhra Raje over their help to former IPL chief Lalit Modi
and of Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan over the
Vyapam scam.
In his remarks, the home minister said terrorism did
not belong to any caste, colour or religion and "a terrorist is a
terrorist".
"The UPA (government's) home minister had coined a
new terminology of Hindu terrorism and LeT chief Hafiz Saeed had
congratulated him," Rajnath Singh said.
In a tweet later, Rajnath Singh indicated that the controversial remarks was made by former home minister Sushilkumar Shinde.
"On
the issue of terrorism their policy has been such that in 2013 the
then home minister (Sushilkumar Shinde) had used words Hindu terrorism,"
the senior BJP leader tweeted.
Rajnath Singh, who made a
statement on the Gurdaspur terror attack in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday,
gave details and said that the analysis of GPS data indicated that the
terrorists had infiltrated from Pakistan.
He asked all political parties to present a united front to the world against terrorism.
"Neither
the country, nor parliament should look divided on terrorism which is
the biggest challenge to the country," Rajnath Singh said.
The
minister said the government was ready for any discussion on terrorism,
he was willing to answer any question and the government was committed
to deal with terrorists strongly.
Congress members stopped their
protests over the Lalit Modi and Vyapam issues when the minister was
making his statement, but protested vociferously after the union home
minister made remarks about the previous United Progressive Alliance
government's record on dealing with terrorism.
Congress leader in
the lower house, Mallikarjun Kharge, accused Rajnath Singh of indulging
in "politics" and trying to defame the previous government.
"You are doing politics and we (will) not tolerate that," he said.
Later, talking to media persons, Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma said terror had no face or religion.
"It
is an effort of the RSS and the BJP to link terror to religion. This
raises a question on the country's secularism. People belonging to
different religions are linked to terrorism. You cannot say that
terrorists who are operating from across the border are bad and the ones
here are not," Anand Sharma said.
The Congress leader said that
rather than talking of the previous government, the BJP-led government
should give an account of its own record in dealing with terrorism.
He said that the BJP was part of coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir but Pakistani flags had been raised in the state.
