Amit Shah fires Urban Naxal barb at Congress

BJP president Amit Shah claimed on Friday that the Congress stands “exposed” with the Supreme Court’s refusal to interfere with the arrests of five activists in the Bhima-Koregaon violence case, and said “there is only one place for idiocy and it’s called the Congress”.

Shah fired a barrage of tweets to make his point. “Those who stooped down to the level of politicising an issue of national security have been exposed by the Honourable Supreme Court’s decision today. It is high time that the Congress now clears its stand on this critical issue of Urban Naxalism,” one of them said.

The BJP chief also lashed out at Congress president Rahul Gandhi and tagged his tweet posted last month in which he had targeted the government for these arrests.

India is a vibrant democracy with a healthy culture of debate, discussion and dissent, he said, adding that "plotting against the country with the intent to harm its citizens is not one of these".

Those who politicised this issue need to apologise, he said.

Shah's response came after the Supreme Court refused to interfere with the arrest of five rights activists by Maharashtra police in connection with the Bhima- Koregaon violence case and declined to appoint a special investigation team to probe their arrest.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, in a 2:1 verdict, on Friday refused the plea seeking the immediate release of the activists.