Date:08/11/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/11/08/stories/2008110855661200.htm

National

Come clean, Congress tells BJP

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Friday said the nation was proud of the Army but “ashamed of those who seek to infiltrate, influence and convert established secular institutions to a particular ideology and divisive agenda.”

The party was reacting to the arrest of a serving Army officer in connection with the Malegaon blast case.

Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi wanted to know whether the BJP tried to saffronise key foundational institutions in the past, implement a particular exclusivist ideology through Ministries such as Human Resource Development, establish institutions like Sankalp, which was intended to be a finishing school for civil service aspirants but had a predisposed bias. He also asked whether retired Major Ramesh Upadhyay, another suspect in the case, was an “integral part” of the ex-servicemen’s cell of the BJP. “The nation deserves answers,” he said.

“That persons like Lt. Col. Purohit and Major Upadhyay represent a rare aberration is not because of the BJP but in spite of the BJP. The BJP should come clean on all the disguises and proxy vehicles which they have always used for the insidious campaign of saffronisation. This, the Congress believes, is the most dangerous to India.”