Jaitley accuses UPA of double standards on Godhra

NEW DELHI: The BJP on Thursday described the attack on the Nanavati panel���s findings as yet another instance of shifting the goal posts on secularism. BJP leader Arun Jaitley said ���secularists��� appears to have made the defence of the train burning incident part of their commitment to the ���secular cause���.

���This is not the only instance. Jamia Milia vice-chancellor Mushirul Hasan���s offer of legal aid to the two terror detainees shows a similar trend. Hasan had said that the decision was based on the commitment to faith and university. The commitment should be to the state and nation. Any state or instrumentality of the state rendering its shoulder in support of a terror accused would set a wrong precedent,��� Mr Jaitley said. He also added said that there is already a provision by which the state provides for legal representation to those who cannot afford one on their own.

The BJP leader said the same mindset is evident in the support for Simi. He said the support of senior ministers for Simi, which is held responsible for terror outrages by the government���s own security agencies, show that the regime and its leaders can go to any extent in furtherance of their cynical aim.

The BJP said the UPA government���s constant dithering on a tough terror law underlines the real nature of the UPA���s ���secularism���. The BJP said the UPA leaders said a ���perception equality��� is created between those who want to break the nation and those who want unity of the nation.

This ���perceptional equality��� is evident when a comparison is made between the Hurriyat and the Shri Amarnath Sangarsh Samiti. Mr Jaitley said the victimhood politics, a favourite pastime of the UPA, also stems from this flawed understanding of secularism.

���It is coming in the way of every terror investigation. It is rising the life of every Indian,��� he said. The first part of the Nanavati Commission report, which is restricted to the burning of a coach of the Sabarmati Express at Godhra, was tabled in the Gujarat assembly on Thursday.

It gave chief minister Narendra Modi and his government a clean chit and concluded that the train was attacked and torched from the outside. In doing so, it rejected the findings of railway ministry���s U C Bannerjee Committee report which had ascribed the burning of the compartment to an ���accidental fire.���

Reacting to the Nanavati report, the BJP said that unlike the Banerjee Committee report, the Nanvati Commission had examined more than 1,000 witnesses. BJP leaders said that there was exhaustive evidence of every stage of planning of the attack.

Welcoming the Nanavati Commission���s report, BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said, ���This is the truth. They (Congress) can start a debate but people were burnt alive. There was fury over it. Still there was an attempt by the UPA dispensation to prove that the burning was self-immolation by Kar Sewaks���.