Govt doesn't identify terrorism with any religion: Manish Tewari

New Delhi: The government today said it does not associate terrorism with any religion or colour but sought to know what action has BJP taken against those arrested for terror acts and are alleged to have links with the Opposition party and its parent organisation RSS.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari made these  clarifications in the wake of reports that BJP and RSS are planning to hit out at Congress in the run-up to the next general elections by taking to the people the issue of Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde’s charge that the two organisations are involved in Hindu and saffron terror.

“As far as the Home Minister’s statement is concerned, it has been clarified by the government and the party that we do not associate terrorism with any religion. Terrorism has no colour,” he said.

But the union minister pointed out that there are some people under arrest for terror acts who are said to be affiliated to RSS and its sister organisations.

“Even today there are some people under arrest who were allegedly found involved in terror activities and there relations- whether ideologically or organisationally- were with RSS and their front organisations,” Tewari said. He asked both RSS and BJP to clear the air on these allegations.

“It would be better if RSS and BJP reply to questions about what action they have taken against those individuals related to their organisation who were found involved in such activities and what steps they have taken to ensure that such proclivities do not grow within their ideological boundaries,” Tewari said.

Tewari said BJP does not have a chance of coming back to power in the next general elections. “BJP had made a strategy in 2004 and 2009 but the people rejected them on both occasions… Polls are a year away and those who were building castles in the air in 2004 and 2009 will keep doing so in 2014 too,” he said.

He alleged that BJP had discarded all issues on which it fought and came to power in 1998 and 1999. “There is a huge difference between what they say and what they do. The country has seen through their opportunistic politics,” Tewari said.

PTI