New Delhi, Aug 27 (IANS) Seeking to end the controversy over the ‘saffron terrorism’ remarks of Home Minister P. Chidambaram, the Congress said Friday that the issue was terror and not its colour.
‘Saffron, bhagwa or kesariya (Hindi words for saffron) is not an issue. The issue is terrorism. Terrorism does not have any colour. It has only one colour and it is black,’ Congress general secretary Janardan Dwivedi told reporters.
Dwivedi, who is in charge of the Congress’ media department, said whether it is called saffron, green, white or red, terrorism is terrorism.
‘Terrorism is terrorism and it should be opposed in whatever form it comes. The saffron colour has been part of our ancient tradition and is associated with our freedom struggle. No particular section of society has a sole right on it,’ he said.
Dwivedi’s remarks came on a day the Bharatiya Janata Party and its ally Shiv Sena forced two adjournments of the Rajya Sabha on the issue in the morning. Objecting to the home minister’s remarks, they said that it was wrong to associate terrorism with any community or colour.
The Congress had Thursday brushed aside the controversy over Chidambaram’s remarks, saying that there was no need to get bogged down in nomenclature but to look at the substance of his remarks on the activities of organizations affiliated to right-wing ideology which have been found to be involved in acts of terror.
However, with the BJP showing inclination to raise its pitch on the issue ahead of Bihar assembly polls, the Congress has sought to perform a balancing act.
Congress sources said that the party also did not want the issue to disrupt proceedings in parliament at a time when important legislative agenda was pending and the session had been extended by two days.
In his speech Wednesday at the meeting of state police chiefs, Chidambaram cautioned security and intelligence officials against continuing attempts of militants to infiltrate into India as well as the recently uncovered phenomenon of ‘saffron terrorism’.
