Aggressive Congress to pose tough questions to BJP over its alleged links with terrorists

Congress is stepping up pressure over BJP’s alleged links with terrorists and will hold nationwide pressers on Saturday to amplify the issue. “The pressers in key cities on Saturday are meant to expose the double standards of the BJP,” said a senior AICC functionary. Writes ETV Bharat's Amit Agnihotri.

New Delhi: Congress is stepping up pressure over BJP’s alleged links with terrorists and will hold nationwide pressers on Saturday to amplify the issue. “The pressers in key cities on Saturday are meant to expose the double standards of the BJP,” said a senior AICC functionary.

Some of the important leaders who will address these pressers are AICC media chairman Pawan Khera in Raipur, MP Shakti Sinh Gohil in Jaipur, Ajoy Kumar in Mumbai, Uttam Kumar Reddy in Bengaluru, Pallam Raju in Chennai, Yashomati Thakur in Hyderabad, MP Ranjeet Ranjan in Guwahati, and Shobha Oza in Lucknow.

Over the past days, Congress has cited several instances in which the terror accused had links to the BJP and sought to counter the ruling party over the issue. The trigger for the Congress attacks was the arrest of an accused Riyaz Attari in the horrific murder of one Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur, Rajasthan. It was revealed during the probe that Attari had links with the BJP. The case is now being probed by the NIA.

Soon after, a captured Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist Talib Hussain Shah in Jammu and Kashmir turned out to be a BJP office-bearer. Hussain was planning to launch attacks on the Amarnath Yatra. Congress media chairman Pawan Khera said there are many more such instances, which demand Congress to seek answers from the ruling party.

Before this, Congress has similarly held nationwide pressers over the Agnipath scheme saying it was like cheating the youth. When applications for the scheme came in large numbers, Congress leader P Chidambaram said it was an indicator of high unemployment in the country as the youth were willing to take up any job.

Sources said the Congress thinks that exposing the ruling party on the defense jobs and now the alleged links with the terror accused will help it blunt the BJP’s aggressive nationalism and help the grand old party present as a strong opposition.

The opposition party had also adopted a strong position over a fake video linking Rahul Gandhi to the Udaipur terror accused and has lodged FIRs against some BJP leaders. The party MPs have also urged the Lok Sabha Speaker to direct the ethics committee to probe the alleged circulation of the fake video by some BJP members.

It has also approached the national broadcasters’ authority against a channel that aired the video and has even lodged an FIR against its anchor in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan. Over the past few days, Congress has also protested nationwide over the high prices of cooking gas and essential food items to take up public issues.

The Congress has become aggressive after the ED recently questioned Rahul Gandhi in the alleged National Herald money laundering case and the police atrocities against party leaders who came out to express solidarity with their leader. The Congress claims the NH case is bogus and has been restarted as part of the BJP’s political vendetta.