Congress playing with fire: Venkaiah Naidu

Bhopal, Nov 17: Senior BJP leader and Madhya Pradesh party in charge M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday, Nov 17 charged the Congress with hatching conspiracy to divide the country on the communal line.

''Congress is playing with fire by politicising terrorism and giving it a religious colour,'' Mr Naidu said while interacting with the press here before his departure to election campaign in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh.

Mr Naidu said India was divided on the religious ground earlier and the people had seen the results. He apprehended that the Congress was trying to repeat the same thing once again and it would be a great challenge to stop such act to save India.

''Terrorism is terrorism, it should not be linked with any religion -- this is the stand of the BJP. But the Congress is doing the opposite by not hanging Afzal Guru involved in Parliament attack while the Maharashtra Anti Terrorist Squad is harassing Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur when no evidence is found against her so far,'' Mr Naidu said.

When more than 200 people were killed in the train blast in Mumbai in 2006, Congress was keeping mum, but when only seven were killed in Malegaon blast, the party was raising hue and cry.

Alleging that the Congress had adopted a dual policy by threatening to impose article 355 and 356 in Karnataka and Orissa for violence but it initiated no action against Assam and Maharashtra government.

He challenged the Congress to take courage to ban the Hindu outfits.

''If they (Congress) have guts, then they impose ban on the Hindu organisation and see the consequences,'' the former party president said.

Mr Naidu said it was the old habit of the Congress to prop up 'dirty tricks' everytime on the eve of the elections. ''Whenever elections come the Congress raise controversial issues. The party encourgaed Bhindarnvala issue and everyone knows what happened and the party did it again in 1996 by raising Hawala case against senior-BJP leader L K Advani,'' he alleged, adding now ATS has become active on Malegaon blast case and other related the issues.

He said the Congress was digging its own grave and no body could save the party from its downfall, Mr Naidu opined.

Taking a dig at the former Madhya Pradesh Cheif Minister Digvijay Singh for his comment on Mr Advani, Mr Naidu said he should not utter such irresponsible statement.

He also asked the Congress to issue a white paper on the work of its five-year tenure and said the BJP was ready to furnish its work during its rule.

Reiterating that the BJP would retain power in Madhya Pradesh, Mr Naidu said the credibiltiy of Chief Minsiter Shivraj Singh Chouhan would help the party to score over the others.

UNI