The Congress on Friday said the BJP had plotted a violent campaign against north Indians because the ruling party did not want the public discourse to be dominated by issues such as the Rafale deal, the economic mess and the agrarian and job crises.
Releasing documents and visual evidence to buttress its allegations, Congress spokesperson Shaktisinh Gohil told a media conference: “At least three BJP MLAs and several office-bearers and workers were involved in instigating people after the ghastly incident of the rape of a 14-month-old girl on September 28. They conducted social media and whisper campaigns to organise violent attacks. We demand action against them and total restoration of peace and harmony.”
There has been an exodus from Gujarat of Hindi-speaking workers from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar following attacks on them after the baby was raped allegedly by a migrant labourer from Bihar.
Gohil, who hails from Gujarat and is the Bihar in-charge of the Congress, thanked the people of Bihar for showing restraint.
“The BJP won most of the Lok Sabha seats in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. The people of these states played a crucial role in making (Narendra) Modi the Prime Minister. They should be ashamed of this politics now,” he said.
The Congress is aware that the attacks on north Indians would impact the year-end Assembly elections in the Hindi heartland and later the parliamentary polls in 2019.
The Congress is doubly worried because the BJP has created an impression that Congress MLA Alpesh Thakor was the key instigator of the violence. Alpesh, who is also the leader of the Thakor Sena in Gujarat, had appeared in a purported video calling for a retaliation against outsiders.
Gohil didn’t reject outright Alpesh’s role, but tried to put it in perspective.
“Alpesh might have said something in the immediate aftermath of the ghastly rape of a child. But (Congress president) Rahul Gandhi immediately talked to him and asked him to work for peace. The subsequent actions by Alpesh are all for restoring peace,” Gohil said.
“He led a sadbhavna march, held community lunches with affected people from other states, gave a public call for harmony and sat on a fast to calm people down. He has repeatedly said people of all states are welcome and asked the victims to contact him for help.”
Asking the Gujarat government to take action against anybody who is responsible for violence, Gohil said: “Why didn’t the police file an FIR against Alpesh and arrest him? Because they know who are the culprits, and Alpesh has openly worked for the restoration of peace.
“On the contrary, the BJP people are constantly leading the violent campaign and none of their actions are for restoration of social harmony. The Congress doesn’t play divisive politics. When there was a violent campaign against outsiders in Mumbai, the BJP remained silent on the role of its traditional ally. The Congress had opposed that politics even then.”
According to Gohil, the BJP “allowed a whisper campaign to create an atmosphere of hate” after the rape instead of maintaining law and order.
“Ahmedabad DRM (divisional railway manager) Dinesh Kumar has said there was a spurt in… (train occupancy) from 26 per cent to 137 per cent at five stations in Gujarat in the first week of October in comparison with (this time) the previous year. This was caused by the exodus. But BJP chief ministers, including Adityanath of Uttar Pradesh, said nothing had happened,” Gohil said.
Releasing documents, copies of social media posts and videos, Gohil said: “Just a day after the gruesome rape, the BJP MLA from Himmatnagar, Rajendra Chavda, exhorted BJP workers to drive away north Indians. He said ‘Vijaybhai had said no factory giving more than 20 per cent jobs to outsiders would be allowed to run. Only factories having 80 per cent local Gujarati workers will function.’
I will conduct a survey to find out. It is clear that none other than chief minister Vijay Rupani is fanning xenophobia and inciting hatred against workers from other states.”
