Pragya is not a terrorist, says Rajnath

New Delhi, Oct 30 (UNI) Strongly denying that Pragya Singh was associated with the BJP or the Sangh Parivar any more, BJP President Rajnath Singh today, however, asserted that the Sadhvi, arrested in connection with September 29 Malegaon blasts, is not a terrorist.

"Arrest of a person by police does not mean the person is a terrorist. If the government has any proof against her it should make them public. I will say that a believer in cultural nationalism or Hinduism cannot be a terrorist," the BJP President told newspersons.

Mr Rajnath Singh said it seemed the Government was trying to overplay the arrest of the Sadhvi in line with its appeasement policy. "Branding it as Hindu terrorism to meet one's political ends is dangerous," he warned.

Rapping the UPA Government for the spurt in terrorist activities and the serial bomb blasts in Assam, he said the withdrawal of the anti-terror law, POTA, and the lack of any other similar measures, betrayed the Government's intention of being soft towards the terrorists. As a result, serial bomb blasts were taking place in many places.

He said this Government was not serious to tackle the menace of terrorism. Till date it had never thought of convening an all-party meeting to arrive at a consensus approach to deal with the problem, he pointed out.

Besides, in order to promote minority appeasement, the senior Ministers in the Government had gone to the extent of describing the Batla House encounter as fake. "Why would the police sacrifice its decorated Inspector M C Sharma in a fake encounter?'' he asked.

Now the Congress and its allies were talking of giving citizenship to illegal Bangladeshi migrants, he added.

UNI KAS RP CS1805