Congress distances itself from Shinde's Hindu terror remarks

On a day the BJP announced a nationwide protest against Shinde's remarks that the party and RSS were conducting training camps which promoted Hindu terrorism, party general secretary Janardan Dwivedi said Congress never uses words like "Hindu terror or saffron terror".

"Terrorism should not be linked with any religion. Congress does not see any connect between terrorism and any religion. The party has earlier also made it clear that terror has no religion or colour. Congress never uses word like saffron terror or Hindu terror," Dwivedi told reporters here.

He also said that the Home Minister's remarks appeared to be a slip of tongue as he was talking about the probe into the Malegaon and Mecca Masjid blasts in which people associated with organizations close to RSS have been arrested.

The Home Minister, too, followed suit by saying that he "fully agrees" with the clarification made by the AICC.

The Congress statement as also the Home Minister's virtual retraction came even as Khurshid backed Shinde but said terror cannot be linked to any religion.

Asked why the Home Minister used "Hindu terrorism" word, Dwivedi said "that must not have been the intention of the Home Minister. No Congress leader can say such thing with intention. Sometimes it happens that some words come out of the mouth of an individual unintentionally...This dispute should be brought to an end now. "

Dwivedi also recalled saffron is also one of the colours in the national flag as well as in the party flag of Congress.

"How can we have an objection to the saffron colour. Kesaria has been part of old tradition of a large part of the country. Saffron is also one of the colours of our national flag as well as the flag of the Congress party...," he said.

NCP spokesperson D P Tripathi, a UPA ally, said it was "wrong" and "improper" for Shinde to link any religion or community to terrorism.

Addressing the AICC meeting at Jaipur on Sunday, Shinde had said, "...We have got an investigation report that be it RSS or BJP, their training camps are promoting Hindu terrorism. We are keeping a strict vigil on all this".

In Delhi, Union Home Secretary R K Singh said at least 10 people, who were allegedly involved in a spate of terror attacks in different parts of the country, had links with RSS or its affiliated organisations.