BJP is not sparing even those who are dead, says Patole over allegations against Ahmed Patel

Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole on Saturday alleged that the BJP was making false allegations against late Ahmed Patel to cover up the “sins” of the Gujarat riots.

While misusing government agencies to harass opposition leaders, the BJP was not sparing even those who are dead, he said.

The police in BJP-ruled Gujarat on Friday claimed, while opposing bail for activist Teesta Setalvad, that she was part of a larger conspiracy, carried out at the behest of late Congress leader Ahmed Patel, to dismiss the BJP government in that state after the 2002 riots. “The allegations made by the BJP against Ahmed Patel are baseless. This is a desperate attempt to whitewash Prime Minister Narendra Modis image which had been tarnished by the 2002 Gujarat riots,” Patole told reporters here.

Then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had chided Modi for not doing his duty during the riots, he said, adding that the saffron party was now levelling cheap allegations only “to cover up the sins of Gujarat riots.””The conspiracy to torture and harass the opposition through the government machinery has not spared even those who have died,” Patole said. People in Gujarat were not happy with the BJP government and the “so-called Gujarat model of development” has failed, the Congress leader said.

The Modi government at the centre has “completely failed” in handling inflation, unemployment and the economy, and with Gujarat elections looming, “this is a ploy to defame the Congress,” Patole said. He also said that allegations levelled by the BJP against former Vice President Hamid Ansari were politically motivated.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Federal staff and is auto-published from a syndicated feed.)