Don’t use stray remark to deflect from note ban scam, Cong tells BJP

Aditi Tandon 

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 23

The Congress on Friday attacked its own former Jammu and Kashmir Congress chief Saifuddin Soz for advocating independence for Kashmir in order to sell his yet to be launched book and said the BJP should stop using a stray remark to divert attention from the note ban scam involving BJP president Amit Shah.

Cheap marketing tactics to sell a book cannot alter the reality that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India. The Congress stands for this reality, which will outlive generations and rejects any statement to the contrary, Congress media head Randeep Surjewala said.

Surjewala said he was not privy to contents of the book, which Soz has penned and is yet to be released.

“Many people will say many things to sell books or get cheap publicity. For the last two days, Yashwant Sinha, former BJP leader, has said many things in Jammu and Kashmir, but the party has not spoken on that. We saw how BJP veteran LK Advani praises MA Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. So people say all kinds of things all the time. That does not change the fact that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India,” Surjewala said.

Distancing itself from Soz, the Congress attacked the BJP leaders for silence on the invitation extended to ISI to investigate the Pathankot terror attack.

“Don’t divert nation’s attention on the basis of a stray comment made by one person. The BJP is raising this bogey in a systematic manner today because they are scared of the RTI reply from NABARD, which says crores of rupees were deposited in cooperative banks, including one where BJP chief Amit Shah, is director even before demonetisation happened. Let’s not get diverted by the BJPs nefarious designs and comments on a stray statement,”  Surjewala said.

The Congress instead demanded a statement from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on huge chunks of money going into the banks in the BJP controlled states before the note ban controversy.

“Did the BJP know that demonetisation was soon to be announced,” Surjewala asked.