Home Minister Rajnath Singh criticised Congress over Ishrat Jehan case
Highlights
- Key documents on Ishrat Jehan case are missing, says Home Minister
- There should be no politics, no flip-flops on terror: Rajnath Singh
- P Chidambaram is accused of rewriting affidavits with Ishrat's LeT links
The opposition Congress was under attack in Parliament today over the Ishrat Jehan case, with the ruling BJP accusing P Chidambaram of manipulating documents when he was home minister.
"Like Rajiv Gandhi was killed, would (PM Narendra) Modi have to die before the Congress took action?" questioned BJP lawmaker Nishikant Dubey, initiating a discussion in the Lok Sabha. He also referenced Sonia Gandhi's "Maut ke Saudagar (merchants of death)" barb for Narendra Modi and said: "Were they trying to do maut ka sauda (business over death)?"
Mr Chidambaram is accused of rewriting government documents to say that there was no proof that 19-year-old Ishrat Jehan, killed in 2004 by Gujarat police officers, was a terrorist.
The Gujarat police said Ishrat, and three others shot dead with her, were involved in a plot to kill then Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh said key documents are missing from his ministry.
"Two letters from the then home secretary to the attorney general in 2009 have gone missing. The then attorney general had vetted two affidavits regarding the case. Those are also not available," Mr Singh said.
Without naming Mr Chidambaram, the home minister raised the alleged amendments.
"There should be no politics on terror. Be it the Ishrat Jehan or any other case, no government should do flip-flops," he said, adding: "Those who call themselves secular, they tried to give communal colour to terrorism, coined the term saffron terror. This happened for the first time in the world. We will not accept it in any way in the country."
Terrorist David Coleman Headley's statement to a Mumbai court that Ishrat was linked to the terror group Lashkar e Taiba revived the political row over the case.
Headley's statement was seized by the BJP to reiterate that the Congress portrayed Ishrat as an innocent student shot dead on the orders of the Gujarat government, mainly to tarnish Mr Modi.
"This was done to malign the Gujarat government and then Chief Minister (Narendra Modi). This was a conspiracy," Rajnath Singh said as Congress members shouted slogans relentlessly.