New Delhi: Following the acquittal of all seven accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case in which six people were killed and over 100 hurt, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday reacted strongly, hailing the verdict as a vindication of truth and slamming the Congress for its “Saffron terror” jibe over the ghastly incident.
RSS Akhil Bharatiya Prachar Pramukh Sunil Ambekar told IANS in Nagpur, “The truth has been made clear by today’s court decision in the Malegaon blast case. Some individuals, driven by personal and political interests, deliberately entangled the case and made unjust attempts to associate the blast with Hinduism and the entire Hindu community. After a long legal process, the truth has prevailed.”
Meanwhile, the BJP celebrated the verdict and attacked the Congress for deliberately using the term “Saffron terror” for political gains.
Earlier in the day, senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad accused the Congress of coining the term “saffron terror” to target Hindutva and Hindu identity. “It was a malicious campaign to demonise an entire community for vote bank politics,” he claimed.
“The Congress party, for the sake of vote-bank politics, can go to any extent. On behalf of the BJP, we would like to say, that the Congress party orchestrated a false conspiracy called ‘Bhagwa aatankwad’”, he added.
Similarly, reacting to the verdict, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday posted on X, “terrorism was never saffron, is not and will never be.”
The acquittal has reignited the political debate, with the BJP demanding an apology from Congress leaders, accusing the party of coining the term “saffron terror”.
Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh, however, said that terrorism should not be associated with any religion and no faith advocates violence.
The seven individuals who were put on trial included Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, former BJP MP from Bhopal; Lt Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit, then a serving officer in Military Intelligence; Major (Retd) Ramesh Upadhyay; Ajay Rahirkar; Sudhakar Dwivedi; Sudhakar Chaturvedi and Sameer Kulkarni.
(IANS)
