Congress today dismissed as "insensitive and non-statement" Prime Minister Narendra Modi's remarks on the Dadri lynching incident and alleged that what happened was a "premeditated stratagem" to help BJP gain in assembly poll-bound Bihar.
"Mr. Prime Minister, do you think what happened in Dadri was a fight between the Hindus and Muslims? It was a premeditated, meticulously conspired stratagem to create an environment of fear; to divide the polity for BJP to gain political capital in Bihar."
"You should not have waited for 9 days to make a non-statement. Your words were insensitive since they did not take note of the forces of hate behind the Dadri lynching", senior party leader Kapil Sibal told reporters.
He insisted that the manner in which Mohammad Akhlaq was targeted was not a fight between Hindus and Muslims as was sought to be projected.
"Gandhiji would have gone on a fast unto death had he witnessed the incident at Dadri. Gandhiji would never make the kind of speeches you are making in Bihar", he said.
Hitting out at the Prime Minister, Sibal told him "your thought process and your mind-set are the same as that of Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma. So please don't pretend to distance yourself from him."
Sharma had come under attack over his controversial statements in the wake of the incident at Dadri which falls in his Lok Sabha constituency.
"What is unfortunate is that you too are playing politics. Your strategy ever since you became Prime Minister is to allow your Ministers and BJP functionaries to create an environment of communal tension and violence."
"After polarizing the polity for political gain, you then make a wishy-washy statement, talking of 'akhandata/sadbhavana' so that you reap both harvests,." He said.
Targeting BJP, he asked the Prime Minister why before every election the communal temperature rises above "boiling point."
"Is it because BJP wishes to polarize the polity to garner votes or is it just a coincidence? ", he said.
