Sonia Gandhi conspired with Ahmed Patel to defame Narendra Modi, says BJP; Congress hits back

Aditi Tandon

Advertisement

New Delhi, July 16

Ahead of the monsoon session of Parliament starting on Monday, the BJP and the Congress had a face-off on the issue of Gujarat riots with the ruling dispensation accusing Congress president Sonia Gandhi of hatching a conspiracy to defame then Gujarat chief Minister Narendra Modi through activists and police officials.

In a press conference here, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra alleged that Sonia was behind the conspiracy to malign Narendra Modi, the incumbent prime minister.

Patra said even the Supreme Court while upholding the SIT findings of a clean chit to Modi and others in the Gujarat riots had recently observed that the issue was kept alive for political purposes and those behind it should be proceeded against in accordance with the law.

“Various layers of the conspiracy that was launched by the Congress to undermine Narendra Modi are now being revealed part by part,” said Patra even as the Congress general secretary, communications, Jairam Ramesh, slammed the allegations saying the BJP did not spare even the dead.

Jairam’s reference was to the SIT affidavit stating that late Ahmed Patel was behind the conspiracy against Modi.

Citing media reports that flagged the affidavit by the special investigation team formed to look into the issue, Patra said Sonia paid Rs 30 lakh to activist Teesta Setalvad to fuel the matter.

“Though the money was paid by Ahmed Patel, he only made the delivery. The real force behind the conspiracy was Sonia Gandhi. Rs 30 lakh was paid as the first instalment in those years,” said Patra.

Hitting back at the BJP, Ramesh said the ruling party did not spare even the dead.

“The Congress categorically refutes the mischievous charges manufactured against late Ahmed Patel. This is part of the Prime Minister’s systematic strategy to absolve himself of any responsibility for the communal carnage unleashed when he was the chief minister of Gujarat in 2002. It was his unwillingness and incapacity to control the carnage that led the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to remind the chief minister of his raj dharma,” said Ramesh.

He said the Prime Minister’s political vendetta machine clearly did not spare even the dead.

“This SIT is dancing to the tune of its political masters and will sit wherever it is told to sit. We know how an earlier SIT chief was rewarded with a diplomatic assignment after he gave a clean chit to the chief minister. Giving judgment through the press, in an ongoing judicial process, through puppet investigative agencies who trumpet wild allegations as opposed to findings, has been the hallmark of the Modi and Shah duo’s tactics for years. This is nothing but another example of the same with the added object of vilifying a deceased person since he obviously is unavailable to refute the brazen lies,” Ramesh said in a statement.