The Congress on Friday said the BJP-led Central Government had stepped up rhetoric on the Ishrat Jahan case and was resorting to “hyper-nationalism” in the JNU episode to divert attention from the “serious economic crisis” it had plunged the country into.

On the BJP’s demand for an apology from the Congress President for the UPA’s alleged use of central probe agencies to “malign” Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi sought to know if the ruling party believes in “mob justice and extra-judicial killings”.

“Let us presume that Ishrat Jahan was a suspected terrorist. What is the course of action the BJP is proposing? That she should be liquidated in a false encounter? As a civilised country governed by law and order, should we not proceed by trying her in the court of law as Ajmal Kasab and Afzal Guru were tried? The BJP was advocating hanging them by the nearest lamp-post. How is India different from a banana republic if we too resort to such practices? The whole thing is ridiculous,” said Singhvi.

Singhvi termed the BJP a “master in the art of diverge-nce, distraction and disinformation” because they cannot politically manage reality. He said the BJP needs “diversionary tactics” such as the Ishrat Jahan case or unrest in universities because it could not afford to let out the “real story” of its mismanagement and inefficiency.

Report card

Presenting a “charge sheet” on the falling GDP numbers, the rupee’s decline, bad loans of banks, fall in manufacturing and market fall, Singhvi accused the BJP of creating a smokescreen of “communal conflagrations”. “For the past few months, the BJP has drifted from one conflagration to the other – from Hyderabad Central University to JNU, from shockingly divisive stat-ements and acts by their elected representatives including ministers and MPs,” Singhvi said. He said the government was “clueless” and hence whipping up emotional issues. He said GDP growth had slowed to 7.3 per cent in the third quarter, from a revised 7.7 per cent in the preceding September quarter, the lowest in three quarters of this fiscal.

Additionally, 29 State-owned banks wrote off a total of ₹1.14 lakh crore of bad debts between 2013-2015 and the rupee, which was at 58.5 to a dollar when BJP came to power, has slid to 68.38, showing a fall of 17 per cent. The Index of Industrial Production recorded a negative 3.2, which is the lowest in four years.

“The Congress would like to strongly underline the fact that the economy of this country has been plunged into deep crisis in the 21 months of the Modi government. This clueless government has no idea on how to revive it and they seem to move from one slogan and event to another without even attempting to address the real crisis at hand,” said Singhvi.

Related Topics