BJP condemns Omar for 'sympathetic chord' with Afzal Guru

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday charged Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah with "provoking" the situation in KashmirValley and condemned his interview for having a "sympathetic chord" for Afzal Guru who was hanged last week for his role in the Parliament attack case.

Talking to reporters, BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said the Congress should clear its stand on the interview given by Abdullah as the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister was "part and parcel" of the UPA.

"We deeply condemn his interview because it has a sympathetic chord for the terrorist who attacked Indian Parliament, the idea of India and condemned to death eight years ago.

"So, to raise the issue of discrimination or some other references, actually is nothing but provoking the situation in the Valley. At least the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir should not do this," he said.

The BJP spokesperson was addressing the media after senior party leaders including L K Advani, former party president Nitin Gadkari and others paid homage to its former chief Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay on his 45th death anniversary.

Javadekar said such statements from a Chief Minister were "totally unacceptable" when the country was feeling "national sense of relief" after Guru was executed.

"We condemn his statement and we want to ask Congresswhether they agree with what Omar Abdullah has said because they are part of parcel of UPA and they are supporting it. So, Congress owes responsibility to respond to what Omar Abdullah is saying," he said.

On Sunday, Abdullah had slammed the execution of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru and said it would reinforce a sense of alienation and injustice among generation of youth in the Valley.

The chief minister had said it was a "tragedy" that Guru was not allowed to meet his family before he was hanged and not allowed a "final farewell".

The 43-year-old Parliament attack convict was hanged and buried in Tihar jail premises in Delhi in a secret operation on Sunday.

Clearly unhappy with the hanging of Guru, the chief minister had said there were many questions that needed to be answered.

On the stampede in Allahabad during the ongoing Kumbh Mela there, the BJP spokesperson said, "This is a failure of both central and state government."

"(Railways Minister) Pawan Kumar Bansal cannot skip his duty only by giving a technical answer that the foot over bridge did not collapse but the stampede happened on the station. There was much chaos and could have been managed in a better way," he said.

Terming the incident as "unfortunate", he said the congregation held 12 years ago was better-managed when Rajnath Singh was the chief minister of the state.

"Cannot we as a nation come out strongly with a fool-proof plan when a big religious congregation will pass smoothly without any accident. We will raise this issue in Parliament also," Javadekar said.

Asked about Congress' charge that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's speech at the SRCC college was a "bunch of lies", Javadekar said the statistics about development of Gujarat and four awards related to e-governance have been given to the state by the UPA government itself.

"Statistics and their analysis is done by the Centre only and then calling it a bunch of lies is nothing but politics. This is wrong and the way craze for Modi is growing across the country, Congress is scared from it," he said.