'Arun Jaitley has clarified that he had never said Hindutva was an opportunistic issue. It clearly means that Jaitley told the American official that Hindutva was merely a talking point and the party has no conviction to it,' Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said.
Continuing its attack on Arun Jaitley, Congress today said the BJP should apologise for misleading the entire country on Hindutva and asserted that the opposition party does not have the moral authority to question the United Progressive Alliance (UPA).
"Arun Jaitley has clarified that he had never said Hindutva was an opportunistic issue. It clearly means that Jaitley told the American official that Hindutva was merely a talking point and the party has no conviction to it," Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari told reporters in Delhi.
He said since 1987 the entire country has been misled by the BJP which did not have any conviction to the issues it raised. These issues had led to rioting in some parts of the country and hundreds of lives were also lost, he alleged.
"BJP should first apologise for misleading the entire nation," Tewari said adding that the WikiLeaks revelation and the reaction of the BJP later had brought forth the real face of the BJP.
He dubbed as "ridiculous and hilarious" the BJP questioning the manner in which the Delhi government had rejected the findings of the Shunglu committee that went into the conduct of Commonwealth Games last year.
"The BJP has lost the moral right to ask any question till it apologises for misleading the country," he said.
Tewari said leaders who have rejected their own ideology do not have any moral right to ask any questions.
Tewari refused to comment on the Shunglu committee findings saying the Congress party would wait till the government takes a definite view on the matter.
Earlier, the BJP had asked the BJP not to believe on hearsay but raise substantive issues.
WikiLeaks cables had reported that Robert Blake, charge d' affairs at the US embassy, had conveyed to his government, after a meeting with Jaitley on May 6, 2005, that "Jaitley argued that Hindu nationalism 'will always be a talking point' for the BJP. However, he characterised this as an opportunistic issue."
Jaitley has maintained that he had not used the word "opportunistic".
On the Supreme Court criticising the Centre in connection with investigations into charges against Pune businessman Hasan Ali Khan, facing probe for allegedly stashing away black money abroad and evading taxes, Tewari said it was the policy of the Congress party not to comment on observations made by the court.
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