Continuing its attack on the Congress for “trying to divert attention of the people from its failures”, the BJP on Tuesday said the ruling party is engaged in a “politics of preaching others and concerned only with pointing fingers.”
Alleging that the Uttarakhand crisis saw the biggest failure of the Congress in dealing with it, the main Opposition also charged the Congress with indulging in vote-bank politics in encounter cases, “be it in Gujarat or Jammu and Kashmir”. The party has appointed a committee headed by its national spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain to visit the families of policemen killed in recent firings in J&K.
Underlining that it does not believe in playing politics over tragedy, Mr Hussain said: “We are concerned only about the tragedy and on how to alleviate the sufferings of the victims which is a duty for us. We wish to show the mirror to the Congress on its failures.”
Former Uttarakhand chief minister and senior BJP leader Ramesh Pokhriyal said his party is blamed for playing politics if it tries to raise the Congress government’s fault in dealing with the crisis. “If we say something then we are blamed for playing politics. How do we then point out the faults of the U’khand govt?” said Mr Pokhriyal.
Rescue efforts have been a matter of contention with the BJP charging that the Centre and the Vijay Bahuguna government in Uttarakhand has not made requisite efforts.
The Congress has struck back, mainly citing the exaggerated claims made by the BJP on the people rescued by Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi’s team.
Charging the Congress with doing vote-bank politics in encounter cases, Mr Hussain said: “Congress is looking for votes even in cases of encounters... (senior Congress leader) Digvijay Singh is not mending his ways and want to do politics on this issue as well. Our Army personnel are getting killed but Congress is eyeing the votes.”