(MENAFN- Gulf Times) lBJP nervous ahead of Gujarat elections: Surjewala
The Congress yesterday said the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party was 'rattled at the prospect of defeat in Gujarat and was thus making 'baseless terror allegations against Rajya Sabha MP Ahmed Patel.
Reacting to Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani's allegations against Congress president Sonnia Gandhi's political secretary, party spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala said the BJP was hatching a conspiracy against the Congress MP and asked the ruling party to look inwards.
'The BJP is staring at defeat in Gujarat and that is why they are rattled and making such baseless allegations against Congress leaders. Truth will win and the BJP will be defeated in Gujarat, he said.
Rupani on Friday night demanded Patel's resignation from the Rajya Sabha alleging his links with Mohamed Qasim Stimberwala, one of the two alleged Islamic State activists arrested by the Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad on Wednesday in Surat. The suspects were allegedly planning to blow up a synagogue in Ahmedabad.
Stimberwala resigned recently as an eco-cardiogram technician at the hospital, which Patel had helped grow into a modern facility.
Patel was one of the trustees during the hospital's formative years as a modern hospital and the only one in Bharuch district with the latest equipment and technology with facilities for heart surgery. He resigned as a trustee in 2014 facilitating a new board of trustees to take over the facility.
Patel has rubbished the charge that he had links with Stimberwala.
'Sardar Patel Hospital is a charitable hospital in which 150-200 employees work. Neither Ahmed Patel nor any of his family members is a trustee of the hospital. They also don't hold any office of profit in the hospital, said Surjewala.
He said the ATS should launch a probe against the suspected terrorists if it has evidence.
'The Gujarat chief minister, in order to hide his incapability, is trying to hatch a conspiracy against the Congress leader and making baseless allegations against him in a very despicable attempt, the spokesman said.
'The Congress has always fought against terrorism while the BJP has had an opposite record. Would Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah explain how terrorist Dawood Ibrahim's wife came to Mumbai under their nose in March 2016 and then left the country? How come the Maharashtra government and intelligence agencies didn't even get a whiff of it and could not arrest her?
Surjewala also said that some Islamic State agents arrested in Madhya Pradesh were found to have links with the BJP. 'One of them Dhruv Saxena, was also a member of BJP's IT cell, he said.
'Is it not true that the BJP-PDP government in Jammu and Kashmir gave compensation to the family of terrorist Burhan Wani in December 2016, Surjewala asked.
He also said that the previous BJP-led government had freed dreaded terrorists like Maulana Masood Azhar, Mushtaq Ahmed Jargar and Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh from Indian custody in the Kandahar hijacking incident.
'A Maharashtra BJP leader Eknath Khadse had to resign for his alleged links with Dawood. So, the BJP should look inwards before pointing fingers at others.
The BJP sought clarification from the Congress president, saying if the party doesn't come clean over the issue it will be linked to terrorism by people.
'The investigative agencies have arrested an IS suspect from a hospital in Gujarat. Ahmed Patel is associated with the hospital. The Congress will have to answer. It cannot run away, federal Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said.
He said the Congress president and vice president Rahul Gandhi need to clarify on the matter.
'Terror suspect's link to hospital is a serious issue. It's a matter of national security. We want Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi to give clarification, he said.
Naqvi said that the BJP government has adopted a zero tolerance policy against terrorism and hit out at Congress leadership for defending Patel.
'After a few days people will used to say ‘Congress ka hath Atank ke sath' like they used to say earlier ‘Congress ka haat corruption ke sath'. People are questioning Ahmed Patel's link to IS operatives. Congress has a history of favouring anti-national elements, he said.
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