Stepping up the offensive against a provocative Narendra Modi in the run-up to the Gujarat polls, the Congress and the Left on Wednesday sought to pin him down on his controversial comments in an election rally justifying Sohrabuddin’s killing in a police encounter by reportedly saying “he got what he deserved”.
Labelling him “Dr Death”, the Congress asked the courts and the Election Commission to take suo-moto cognisance of his election speech, while the CPI(M) maintained that even the Prime Minister could not decide the fate of a murderer, which was the purview of the legal process.
Facing a barrage of questions on the issue, the BJP sought to downplay the controversy contending that Modi’s statements were being distorted.
“His statement has been distorted…. He didn’t say it the way it has been presented,” party spokesperson Vijay Kumar Malhotra maintained. “What he (Modi) meant was that if a terrorist, who is planning to target some prominent persons, is killed in an encounter with police what is wrong in that,” he added, defending the party’s poll mascot in Gujarat. The BJP claimed that Modi never took the name of Sohrabuddin and his statement was general in nature.
The Congress, however, affirmed that it will take appropriate action against Modi if it comes to power in the state.
“There are no two views that if we come to power, we will take appropriate action,” Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi told reporters here. Singhvi added it was for the first time in global political history that a sitting constitutional authority had admitted to “cold blooded murder”.
