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The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday justified the provocative utterances of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi against Muslims during his Gaurav Yatra as a reaction to Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's comments on Gujarat made in New York.
Addressing reporters, BJP general secretary Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said, "How can we raise our finger on Narendra Modi when Musharraf continues with his provocative onslaught on Gujarat?"
Asked if the party had obtained tapes of Modi's speeches made during the yatra, Naqvi said, "We are yet to get those tapes. Besides, party president Venkaiah Naidu has spoken to Modi on the basis of the television reports and Modi has clarified that he has been misquoted."
Asked if he was trying to belie the telecast of the speech, Naqvi maintained that until General Musharraf stops commenting on Gujarat, there was no point in blaming Modi.
He lauded the people of Jammu & Kashmir for "rejecting Pakistan's designs to scuttle the smooth election process in the state by coming out in larger numbers" to vote.
He also complimented the Election Commission and, in particular, Chief Election Commissioner J M Lyngdoh for holding the first phase of the election in Jammu & Kashmir so successfully and added that he was confident Lyngdoh would be equally instrumental in conducting free and fair polls in Gujarat later this year.
Meanwhile, the Congress accused Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee of indulging in "double speak" and Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani of "pushing the Indian polity into a qualitatively new crisis by lending blanket backing to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's anti-minority hate campaign".
The party's chief spokesman, S Jaipal Reddy, told reporters that the prime minister not only seemed to endorse the Supreme Court judgment on the new curriculum framework, but was unable to "find fault with the saffronisation" of education.
"We have a prime minister who says one thing one day and indulges in a counter-balancing act the next day," Reddy alleged.
He said Modi had been "caught red-handed with an audiocassette that exposes the combustible communal content of his speech during the rathyatra".
Maintaining that law and order was a state subject and the chief minister should have stopped any campaign that spread hatred between communities, Reddy said, "Here is a classic example of a chief minister indulging in a hate campaign."
Expressing concern about Advani praising Modi for the successful Gujarat Gaurav Yatra, Reddy said, "What is even more disturbing is that the [Union] home minister continues to lend blanket backing to Modi, which has pushed Indian polity into a qualitatively new crisis."
Asked if the party was planning to take up the issue of Modi's hate campaign with the Election Commission and appeal for his disqualification from electoral politics, as was done in the case of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, Reddy said the issue was being debated.
Complimenting the people of Jammu & Kashmir for braving the terrorist threats from Pakista, meant to disrupt the election process, and voting in sizable numbers, Congress spokesman Sibte Razi hoped the party would be able to form the government in case of a hung verdict in the state.
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