NEW DELHI: Hindus could not be terrorists because it was neither in their genes nor in their character, the BJP's chief ministerial candidate for Delhi VK Malhotra said on Monday while accusing the Mumbai Police's Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of lying and conspiring with the UPA government.
Ten people, including a self-proclaimed Hindu seer and a serving lieutenant colonel, have so far been arrested for the Sep 29 bombing in a Muslim-dominated neighbourhood in the small Maharashtra town of Malegaon that killed five people. Investigators are now examining if a Hindu terror conspiracy was involved in several other blasts.
Cautioning the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government against "Hindu bashing" that would be counter-productive, the Bharatiya Janata Party veteran said: "The ATS is lying and is doing all this by conspiring with the UPA government."
"So many incidents of terrorism have taken place in the recent months but the government failed to solve any. To hide their failure they have imagined and concocted 'Hindu terrorism'."
"Hindus by nature can't be terrorists. Neither is it in their genes nor in their character. We have also never said that all Muslims are terrorists," Malhotra added.
"This is nothing but vote bank politics just before the assembly and parliamentary elections. They should rather work on strengthening their intelligence."
The BJP, he said, was not against punishing those guilty of terrorism. "No persons involved in the various jihadi terrorists attacks has been subjected to narco tests but why are so called Hindu suspects are being subjected to such tests again and again?"
Malhotra added that the UPA government was "diverting the attention of the world from the real and proven culprits to so called Hindu terrorism".
