IM's emergence not because of Gujarat riots: Prakash Javdekar

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Stoutly refuting the claim made by Congress General Secretary Shakeel Ahmed that the 2002 Gujarat riots led to the creation of terror outfit Indian Mujahideen, BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said the argument was factually, logically and historically incorrect.

Reacting to Ahmed's tweet that riots was the reason behind the creation of IM, Javadekar said the terror outfit was just an ISI-planned activity aided and abetted by Pakistan.

"The Congress claim is factually, logically and historically wrong. ISI's terror modules change their names frequently. Earlier, it was SIMI and when it was banned, another outfit came in its place," told reporters.

He said SIMI had operated in the country for 12 years since the early nineties. Through such outfits, Pakistan merely wanted to prove that what they were carrying out was not outside terror, but a home-grown movement.

"Pakistan justifies terror in India. Unfortunately, the Congress also justifies it in the garb of attacking BJP," Javadekar said.

He wanted the Congress not to make security aspect an agenda for political discourse which would ultimately hurt the nation's interests.

To a question whether RSS was trying to make Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as BJP's prime ministerial candidate, Javadekar said RSS did neither dictate BJP nor did it conduct the party proceedings. "BJP and RSS have a symbiotic relationship and we do consult each other as our ideology is the same," he said.

The BJP leader said it is true that there is growing demand from various sections of people to make Modi the prime ministerial candidate as he had become an icon for "non-corrupt good governance. Modi will lead us in the 2014 elections," the BJP leader said.

Javadekar alleged that corruption had become the culture of Congress all over the country.