BJP's ''ekta yatra'' aimed at dividing society, nation: Cong

New Delhi, Mar 8 (UNI) Charging the BJP with trying to make political gains out of the terrorist attack on a temple in Varanasi yesterday, the Congress today said the ''ekta yatra'' (pilgrimage for unity) announced by Mr L K Advani and Mr Rajnath Singh was rather a ''danga (riots) yatra'' aimed at dividing society and the nation.

Dismissing BJP's charge that UPA's vote bank politics of ''minority appeasement'' was a reason for the attack, Congress spokesman Rajiv Shukla told reporters the proposed ''yatra'' was precisely meant for taking political mileage out of an ''unfortunate incident'' which should be thoroughly probed and those responsible dealt with severely.

The Congress also held the Varanasi administration and the Mulayam Singh Yadav government in Uttar Pradesh responsible for the incident as they had failed to take action despite the Centre passing on intelligence reports on the possibility of attacks at religious places.

While the Maharashtra government had strengthened security at the Sidhi Vinayak temple in Mumbai, the same was not the case with the UP government, he said.

Strongly criticising the BJP's announcement that its leaders would not celebrate Holi in view of yesterday's incident, Mr Shukla said the same leaders were playing Holi all the six years when they were in power despite a series of terrorist attacks on Parliament, Akshardham temple in Gujarat, Raghunath temple at Jammu and the Red Fort here.

On the other hand, Congress President Sonia Gandhi cancelled the dinner she was to hold for the 59 retiring Rajya Sabha MPs last night in view of the attack. She, alongwith Home Minister Shivraj Patil, rushed to Varanasi to assuage the feelings of the victims, he said.

Mr Shukla also took exception to the fact that the BJP yatra would also cover the Hanuman temple, which was a target in yesterday's attack, stating that the BJP had already exploited Lord Ram and should spare at least his desciple.

The attack showed that the NDA government had failed to check the activities of the both terrorists and the ISI despite resorting to POTA, he said.

Mr Advani had promised to bring out a ''white paper'' on ISI activities but never did so, the Congress said.

UNI SH/SN RP KN1749