Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Tuesday raked up a 2010 incident in which Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi had termed 'Hindu terror' as a threat to the nation instead of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief and 2008 Mumbai attack mastermind, Hafiz Saeed.
Prasad's latest salvo comes in response to Rahul Gandhi's 'hugplomacy' jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"In 2010, then US foreign minister Hillary Clinton came to India. Then prime minister Manmohan Singh invited her for dinner and Rahul Gandhi was also present there. US Ambassador Timothy Roemer, who was also there, asked Rahul's opinion on the Lashkar-e-Taiba. On that note, he said 'leave that, Hindu terror in India is a more crucial issue'," Ravi Shankar Prasad said, at a press briefing.
The union minister further said the international media had reported it all over.
Prasad further elaborated, "The Guardian', in its news piece wrote, 'According to WikiLeaks, Rahul Gandhi said Hindu groups were more dangerous than Lashkar-e-Taiba. Responding to Ambassador's query about Lashkar-e-Taiba, Rahul said there were evidences of some support for the group amongst certain elements in India's indigenous Muslim community."
"However, Rahul warned the bigger threat maybe the growth of radicalised Hindu groups which create religious tensions'," he added.
The campaign for the Gujarat Assembly polls is in full swing and both - the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) - are pulling all stops and digging out old issues to ensure victory in the crucial elections, which are being considered as a pre-cursor to 2019 general elections.
Ravi Shankar Prasad also noted another incident dating back to 2009, when the then prime minister and Congress leader, Manmohan Singh, at Sharm-El-Sheikh Summit in Egypt, let go of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism and instead, expressed concern over the Balochistan issue.
"Dr Manmohan Singh and then Pakistan prime minister Ghilani had a talk where they discussed about terrorism as well. Pakistan said they are worried over the Balochistan issue and an embarrassing moment was faced by India when Manmohan Singh accepted Pakistan's concern over Balochistan," Prasad said.
He added, "It is so shameful that Pakistan intrudes in PoK and Kashmir and spreads terrorism, attacks on Mumbai in 2008 and an year later, Manmohan Singh accepts that Balochistan issue was more important. He bartered the national interest."
Prime Minister Modi too, yesterday, tore into the Congress party for criticising the Centre over the recent release of Hafiz Saeed.
"A Pakistani court released a Pakistani terrorist and the Congress is celebrating and calling it our failure. I don't know why they are celebrating this," he said.
Questioning the leadership of the Congress regime, the prime minister compared the steps taken by his government in the aftermath of the Uri attack with the previous dispensation post 26/11 Mumbai attack.
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