Nadda slams ‘petty politics’ by Opposition, lists incidents of communal violence under Congress rule
Lashing out at the “petty politics” of the opposition parties, BJP president J P Nadda on Monday alleged that a group of parties have “come together yet again” to wage “a direct onslaught on the spirit of our nation and cast aspersions on our hardworking citizens”.
Nadda, who unleashed a sharp attack on them in an open letter to citizens, asked the opposition leaders why they have “forgotten the shameful happenings in Karauli, Rajasthan” and questioned their “haunting silence” on the issue. He was referring to the incident in Karauli on April 2 in which stones were pelted at a bike rally that passed through a Muslim-dominated area on Nav Samvatsar, the Hindu New Year, which subsequently triggered arson and violence in the area.
Nadda’s open letter comes in the wake of a group of opposition parties issuing a joint statement targetting Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his “silence” on the recent incidents of communal violence across the country.
The BJP chief said the youth in the country “want opportunities, not obstacles” and “development, not divisions” and urged the parties to “change track and embrace politics of development”.
Taking a strong exception to the coming together of opposition parties to criticise the ruling party over recent incidents of hate speech and communal violence in the country, Nadda recalled the incident of police firing on “Hindu Sadhus sitting outside Parliament who had marched towards Delhi with the demand of banning cow slaughter in India” in November 1966. He also remembered former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s “infamous words – when a big tree falls the earth shakes – that justified the killing of thousands of Sikhs in the wake of PM Indira Gandhi’s death.”
Nadda also listed various incidents of communal violence “during Congress rule” – “in Gujarat in 1969, Moradabad 1980, Bhiwandi 1984, Meerut 1987, various incidents against the Hindus in Kashmir valley throughout the 1980s, 1989 Bhagalpur, 1994 Hubballi…” besides pointing out the Muzaffarnagar riots in 2013 and the Assam riots in 2012.
“Let me remind everyone that it was the UPA controlled by an extra-constitutional NAC that brought in the most horrific communal violence bill which stooped to new lows of vote bank politics by even UPA standards,” he wrote in the open letter. Nadda added that the “most horrific massacres against Dalits and Tribals” have taken place under Congress regimes.
