New Delhi: Shattered over the party's worst debacle in Gujarat Assembly elections,
Congress on December 16 said it treated the verdict as an "artificial and temporary"
setback and asserted that communal forces would not be able to exploit the "Hindutva"
experiment at the national level.
"We treat the verdict in Gujarat as an artificial and temporary setback inflicted
through a totally negative and divisive campaign that lasted nine months, the BJP
(Bharatiya Janata Party) leaders hummed a hymn of hatred and these are the fruits of
violence," party spokesman Jaipal Reddy told reporters.
However, he said in the face of the setback the party pledges its renewed commitment
to a redoubled effort and preserve the secular fabric of the country.
Denying that the party made strategic mistakes during electioneering, Reddy said the
party believes that the post-Godhra riots were "deliberately" engineered by activists
of
Sangh Parivar in collision with a section of state apparatus with a view to
"deepening and widening" the communal divide that occurred after Godhra.
"If one goes for in-depth analysis of the results, one would find that the reverses
of the party was in exact proportion to riots that occurred in various regions. Where
riots were maximal, our reversal too was maximal," he said.
He accused the so-called secular NDA (National Democratic Alliance) partners for
launching Narendra Modi as Chief Minister, who had been condemned for the post-Godhra
riots not only by the entire Opposition but by every NDA partner except Shiv Sena.
Reddy also dismissed suggestions that the Gujarat experiment may go beyond the state
saying it will be confined to the state boundaries.
PTI
