New Delhi:
A day after the political storm over Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi's reported comments on Hindu terror, the Congress was on the offensive.
Sources tell NDTV the party is likely to ask the government to probe RSS' terror links.
However, interestingly, the Congress has decided to drop the phrase 'Hindu terror' and will replace it with the more politically correct 'right-wing radicalism'.
Congress also demanded a 'deeper' probe into the killing of RSS activist Sunil Joshi, linked to the Ajmer Dargah blast of 2007, alleging he was murdered by his colleagues. (
Read: Who is Sunil Joshi?)
"Sunil Joshi, an RSS
pracharak of Dewas (Madhya Pradesh) - who was involved in the Nimama murder case in Indore, Mau bomb blast, Mecca Masjid blast, Ajmer Sharif Dargah bomb blast, and Samjhauta Express blast - was murdered in Devas sometime back. I had demanded a CBI probe against him at that time because he knew too much. It's extremely intriguing that the Madhya Pradesh government, headed by the BJP, refused to find the facts and closed the case for insufficient evidence. The credit goes to the National Investigative Agency (NIA) and the ATS (Rajasthan Police) who got hold of Harshad Solanki. Solanki has now owned up and named two persons from Madhya Pradesh and two others from Gujarat - Mr Katare and Mr Parmar from Dewas and Indore respectively, and two others from Baroda. All of them are RSS activists," senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said.
While talking to reporters on Saturday, Rahul Gandhi refused to take questions on the WikiLeaks controversy surrounding him, but the Congress general secretary will address the 20,000 delegates at the party plenary on Sunday. It will be interesting to see how far he will go to explain his stand on the sensitive issue.
During the two-day meet, the party will also do some tough talking on Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Jammu and Kashmir is also expected to figure prominently on the agenda.
But on the one issue that the Congress finds itself cornered is corruption. So the party plans to take the war to Opposition's camp. It will take on the BJP on what it calls the latter's doublespeak and highlight charges of corruption against BJP government - the Karnataka land scam will top the list.
Another issue on which the Congress plans to attack the BJP is the demolition of the Babri Masjid, which will categorically be described as a crime as opposed to 'mischievous vandalism' - the phrase used in the past.
In the past few weeks, Congress-led UPA government has come under severe Opposition attack and in some quarters there's a perception that the party did not defend the government strongly enough, and that the two were not on the same page on many key issues. As the party reworks its political strategy, this is one concern it must address.