Digvijay stokes controversy with remarks on 26/11
Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh on Saturday landed himself in a blazing row with remarks on 26/11 terror strikes that riled the BJP and forced the Congress to distance itself from him.
Mr Singh, who had on earlier occasions made statements that the party had not fully backed, stoked a fresh controversy saying that the slain Mumbai ATS chief Hemant Karkare had told him hours before the 26/11 terror strikes that he feared for his safety from Hindu extremists.
Immediately, he came under attack from the BJP, which condemned his controversial remarks and sought an explanation from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and party chief Mrs Sonia Gandhi.
But the Congress was quick to distance itself from Mr Singh's remarks, which also came under attack from JD-U and Shiv Sena.
A defensive Singh then retracted and said that he did not say that the RSS was behind the incident, nor had he questioned the incident. "26/11 is not the Operation by a Hindu Group", he said.
Mr Singh had earlier claimed that Karkare had talked about a threat to his life from those opposed to his probe into the Malegaon blast in which Hindu extremists were accused.
"When I called him he said, he was receiving some threat calls. He did not know who was calling. An article was published in a magazine linked to RSS against his son. It alleged that his son had got some Rs. 50 crore contract from Dubai while his son was just 17-years-old," the AICC leader said.
Reports had it that the Congress leader had made similar remarks during an interaction in a book release function in the national capital a few days back.
Party general secretary Janardan Dwivedi, when asked to comment on Mr Singh's remarks, said, "It is regarding a conversation between two individuals. Unfortunately one of them Karkare is no more with us. So Digvijay Singh will be in a better position to comment on his statement."
Dwivedi said it appears that Singh personally knew Karkare, whose family hailed from Madhya Pradesh and the slain IPS officer had called him due to his personal association.
"Singh has made that private conversation public in a programme and the party has no role into it. Hence only he can comment on it. The party has nothing to say on it," he added.
Mr Singh had also said that Karkare was a "little depressed" that top leaders of BJP, including Rajnath Singh, were questioning his integrity. "After Malegaon blast, we nabbed people about whom I had prior knowledge. They were involved in terrorist activities. They were involved in (Mau) bomb blast and Bhopal bomb blast. I knew all these", Mr Singh, a former Madhya Pradesh chief minister, said.
Mr Singh had also noted at that time he had "some information that some people were questioning Karkare's integrity.… Among them there were top leaders from BJP,
including Rajnath Singh. He was little depressed about this." He said investigating agencies should look into all the matters.
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