New Delhi: Congress on Thursday hit out at Team
Anna and BJP for relating the attack on Union Minister Sharad
Pawar to public anger over price rise.
"There is nothing Gandhian about violence. If you are
Gandhian, the first premise is your commitment towards
non-violence. If one`s belief is not in non-violence, I leave
it to your discretion to decide how much he had followed
Gandhi`s ideologies," party spokesperson Manish Tewari said.
He had been asked to comment on reports that Anna Hazare
wondered whether it was "just one slap" when asked about the
attack. Hazare had also said that people are angry about many
things and the government has to think how to keep the anger
of the masses under check.
Tewari also condemned remarks of another Team Anna member
Kiran Bedi, who said that while condemning assault on public
functionaries, (one) needs to analyse why this is happening
and what must be done to contain this.
The Congress spokesperson asked people to take cognizance
of such statements of "those, who profess to be Gandhians are,
instead of condemning such shameful incidents, trying to
condone violence and say if it is not done, it will lead to
violence."
"Are you going to put a gun to the neck of Parliamentary
democracy," the Congress spokesperson wondered.
Criticizing senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha for his
remarks that continued price rise could lead to violence, he
said it reflects their "true intentions" and such expressions
are not fit for democracy or parliamentary decorum.
Tewari said some publicity seekers seem to have made a
profession out of targeting public figures and hoped that the
law enforcing agencies will take "strongest actions" so that
the trend is "put to rest permanently. "We condemn the attack
in strongest terms. It is unfortunate."
Asked whether he saw any correlation between Yashwant
Sinha`s statement and the attack today, Tewari said it was for
the investigating agencies to find that out but termed the
BJP`s statement as "condemnable".
Another party spokesperson Rashid Alvi blamed the BJP
for the "unfortunate" incident saying, "It was a result of the
opposition party leader`s statement made to incite the public.
"If the opposition party says that people will resort to
violence due to rising prices, it means they are inciting the
people of the country... If a political party incites the
public like this, then it will have such results."
Alvi said, "All political parties and their leaders
should be very careful in giving their statements," as such
remarks weaken democracy.
PTI
