Congress never does politics on terrorism: Gohil

Congress has never been in the favour of doing politics on the issue of terrorism, however, present circumstances in the wake of repeated terrorists activities and their link-up with the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) have necessitated the need to raise questions, party leader Shaktisinh Gohil said on Saturday. There is a need to identify BJP's pseudo-nationalist agenda which is making our country hollow, he said.

''We need to see how terrorists have their links with the BJP along with the timings of the incidents that have happened. Whenever this government fails and people have feelings of resentment, such incidents follow,'' he said at a press conference here.

The Rajya Sabha MP further said, ''Whether it is the protests against the Agnipath scheme when youths were on the streets or when people were troubled by inflation, such incidents take place to divert masses' attention. People need to identify BJP's pseudo-nationalist agenda, which is hollowing out the country in the garb of nationalism.'' Gohil shared a list of incidents that have happened in different states in the past, including the pictures of former Rajasthan Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria with Udaipur murder victim’s prime accused named Riaz Akhtari and that of a terrorist with the Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Jammu and Kashmir, and asked how did it happen despite BJP’s tight security and intelligence inputs.

The MP alleged that the ruling party also gives ticket to convicted terrorists, and said that the BJP had given a ticket to Mohammad Farooq Khan, an aide of Jaish-E-Mohammed (JeM) leader Masood Azhar.

He said that such incidents occur whenever elections are near and the circumstances do not favour the party.

Gohil questioned BJP whether it has any link with such incidents so as to divert the masses’ attention from its shortcomings. He said that BJP is only concerned with its vote bank and is not concerned with the life of either Hindus or Muslims.

''They are neither of Ram nor of Rahim. They are concerned about their vote bank,'' he added.