Believe in secularism based on insaaf, insaniyat: Rajnath on Muslim apology

BJP President Rajnath singh talking exclusively to Firstpost, has blasted the UPA government’s purported move to bring nine laws via ordinance including four corruption bills that Congress Rahul Gandhi has been pushing for.

Reports today indicated that four ministries, had sent requests to the legislative department of the Ministry of Law and Justice to draft the ordinances by Wednesday, so that they can be cleared by the cabinet when it meets on Friday.

“Why didn’t Rahul gandhi and UPA think about these for the last 10 years? They let corruption flow freely and now when they have no face to explain their conduct before the people, Rahul is coming out with an ordinance idea just to get some talking points for himself in the run up to elections”, the BJP President said.

Singh also appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to not indulge in such practices.

“As President of the BJP I urge the Prime Minister not to indulge in this. Now your term is practically over,your government has no legitimacy to issue ordinances because the last session of the 15th Lok Sabha has already concluded and there is no other Session of parliament left to ratify ordinances”, he said.

He added that they would talk to President Pranab Mukherjee and ask him not to approve what he called ’this grossly unconstitutional act’. “When we  form the next government, we will come out with a foolproof mechanism to combat corruption.”

Talking about his widely debated statement in which he appealed to Muslims to give the BJP one chance and said that the party would apologise for its mistakes,  he said, “I believe in secularism based in insaaf (justice) and insaniyat (humanity). The BJP has never done anything to break communal harmony, we have not committed any mistake in the past nor will we commit any in the future. We believe in positive secularism to build the nation as against the Congress’ perverted secularism of divide and rule just to be in power.”

“We have always taken all communities along. This has been my  consistent stand towards all communities”, he added.

On asking about the speculations that his statement was meant as a balancing act to reach out to Muslim community, Singh said “there is no longer any controversy regarding 2002. The courts have already given their verdicts.”