Congress says Somasekhara Commission did a 'whitewashing' job

Congress on Wednesday dismissed as a "whitewashing" job the findings of the Justice BK Somasekhara Commission of Inquiry, absolving the BJP and the Sangh Parivar from the attacks on churches and prayer halls in several places in Karnataka in 2008.

"It is a whitewashing and paint job which will put the whitewashing and paint companies to shame," party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi told reporters, attacking the BJP government in the state which had constituted the probe.

He alleged that the commission headed by a "handpicked" retired judge failed to make an independent examination of the issue.

The probe panel was "of the BJP, by the BJP and for the BJP" and therefore ignored the serious acts of violence against the minorities allegedly masterminded by a breakaway faction of the RSS, he alleged.

Union law minister, M Veerappa Moily, who is a former Karnataka chief minister, has already slammed the commission report and has sought a CBI probe into the incidents to bring out the truth.