New Delhi, Feb 18 (UNI) Union Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday flayed former Home Minister P Chidambaram after ex Mumbai top cop Rakesh Maria revealed in his book that 26/11 terror attack convict Ajmal Kasab was disguised as a Hindu and wanted to know why this information was withheld by the Congress leader.
Questioning both Mr Maria and Mr Chidambaram for not spilling the beans at the time, Mr Goyal said "I think it was a conspiracy by Congress by the UPA. Jhooth aur fareb ka ek aur namoona uss samay humne dekha tha jab unhone poori tareeke se jhootha Hindu terror term Chidambaram sahab ke kehne par khadi karne ki koshish ki thi. (We have witnessed this before when Congress started the completely false "Hindu terror" term at behest of Chidambaram)," he lashed out.
The minister was reacting to the ex-Police Commissioner who, in his book 'Let Me Say It Now', hinted that the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) wanted to pass off the 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai as a case of Hindu terrorism. Maria, in the book, says Ajmal Kasab would have died as "Samir Dinesh Chaudhari" with a "red thread around his wrist" had LeT succeeded in their plan.
Slamming the Mumbai ex-top cop, Mr Goyal asked why the entire episode was being raked up now after considerable passage of time.
"Why was the entire issue spoken about right now? Why did Rakesh Maria reveal all this now? He should have revealed all of this when he was a police commissioner. If a senior police officer has got any information (according to the service rules), he should have taken action against it," the minister demanded, reiterating that terror has no religion and "a terrorist is a terrorist".
BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav reminded that "some intellectuals had attempted to link the Mumbai terror attack to RSS, they had the support of Congress leaders. Today it is revealed that it was a conspiracy by ISI, and some so-called intellectuals were trying to take this forward."
He described former Mumbai Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria's book as a "huge revelation" of Pakistan ISI's failed conspiracy for which he blamed some Congress leaders.
Amit Malviya, in-charge of BJP's national Information & Technology, tweeted: "Pakistan plotted to tap into Congress’s Hindu terror propaganda. Digvijaya Singh had anyway launched the book ‘26/11 - RSS ki Saazish’. But martyr Tukaram Omble came in the way, caught Ajmal Kasab alive. If not for him, Congress and media would have maligned Hindus for ever..."
UNI SD ADG 1849/2002