Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh today landed himself in a blazing row with remarks on 26/11 terror strikes that riled the BJP and forced the Congress to distance itself from him.
Mr. Singh, who had on earlier occasions made statements that the party had not fully backed, stoked a fresh controversy saying that the slain Mumbai ATS chief Hemant Karkare had told him hours before the 26/11 terror strikes that he feared for his safety from Hindu extremists.
Immediately, he came under attack from the BJP, which condemned his remarks and sought an explanation from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and party chief Sonia Gandhi.
But the Congress was quick to distance itself from Mr. Singh’s remarks, which also came under attack from JD-U and Shiv Sena.
A defensive Singh then retracted and said that he did not say that RSS was behind the incident, nor had he questioned the incident. “26/11 is not the Operation by a Hindu Group”, he said.
Mr. Singh had earlier claimed that Karkare had talked about a threat to his life from those opposed to his probe into the Malegaon blast in which Hindu extremists were accused.
“When I called him he said, he was receiving some threat calls. He did not know who was calling. An article was published in a magazine linked to RSS against his son. It alleged that his son had got some Rs 50 crore contract from Dubai while his son was just 17-years-old,” the AICC leader said.
Reports had it that the Congress leader had made similar remarks during an interaction in a book release function in the national capital a few days back.
Party general secretary Janardan Dwivedi, when asked to comment on Mr. Singh’s remarks, said, “It is regarding a conversation between two individuals. Unfortunately one of them Karkare is no more with us. So Digvijay Singh will be in a better position to comment on his statement.”
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