PM’s political vendetta doesn't even spare the departed: Congress slams Centre on charges on Ahmed Patel

The Congress on Saturday refuted the allegations against party leader late Ahmed Patel that he had hatched a conspiracy to destabilise the Gujarat government, led by then Chief Minister Narendra Modi, after the 2002 riots.

Jairam Ramesh, MP and General Secretary In-Charge, Communications, AICC said, "The Indian National Congress categorically refutes the mischievous charges manufactured against the late Shri Ahmed Patel. This is part of the Prime Minister’s systematic strategy to absolve himself of any responsibility for the communal carnage unleashed when he was chief minister of Gujarat in 2002. It was his unwillingness and incapacity to control this carnage that had led the-then Prime Minister of India Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee to remind the chief minister of his rajdharma.

"The Prime Minister’s political vendetta machine clearly does not even spare the departed who were his political adversaries. This SIT is dancing to the tune of its political master and will sit wherever it is told to. We know how an earlier SIT chief was rewarded with a diplomatic assignment after he had given a ‘clean chit’ to the chief minister."

"Giving judgment through press, in an ongoing judicial process, through puppet investigative agencies who trumpet wild allegations as supposed findings, has been the hallmark of the Modi-Shah duo’s tactics for years. This is nothing but another example of the same, with the added object of vilifying a deceased person since he is obviously unable and unavailable to refute such brazen lies," said Jairam Ramesh

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Gujarat police on Friday contended before the court that activist Teesta Setalvad was a part of a "larger conspiracy" by Congress veteran Ahmed Patel against Narendra Modi.