BJP says PM should sack Chidambaram if he does not resign

BJP today sharpened its attack against home minister P Chidambaram for his "saffron terrorism" remark demanding that he should be sacked, even as RSS said the term was an attempt to put the Hindu community in the dock.A day after Congress appeared to distance itself from the remarks saying terror has no colour and that care should be taken on use of words, BJP MP Balbir Punj demanded that prime minister Manmohan Singh should sack Chidambaram if he does not resign for using the "insulting" term.He told reporters here that the home minister should apologise for "insulting" people's sentiments towards the colour. "Saffron colour is the symbol of sacrifice and associating it with terrorism is an insult to Hindu religion."Punj said the home minister's remark was the worst possible example of vote-bank politics.Stung by the expression, senior RSS leader Sureshrao Joshi said in Indore that such a term had no place in society and it should be avoided.As BJP and Shiv Sena kicked up a row over Chidambaram's words at a conference of DGPs earlier this week and demanded an apology from him, Congress General Secretary Janardhan Dwivedi stepped in yesterday to do some damage control.Dwivedi had said, "... Terrorism does not not have colour. Terrorism has only one colour and it is black."However, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad said in Patna that for containing "saffron terrorism", the RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal should be banned.Making a similar demand, LJP supremo Ram Vilas Paswan asked Chidambaram to make public the evidences to prove "activism of saffron terrorism".He asked prime minister Manmohan Singh to immediately intervene and order screening of the functions of these organisations."Chidambaram is right on his stand on saffron terrorism," he said, adding linking every acts of terror to Jehadis or LeT was aimed to mislead the people.Chidambaram's remark triggered uproar in Parliament with the BJP and Shiv Sena members demanding an apology from him.Addressing a function of state police chiefs in Delhi on Wednesday, Chidambaram had said a new phenomenon of "saffron terrorism" involved in many bomb blasts has been uncovered.His comments came against the backdrop of investigators finding links between Hindu extremist outfits and at least five bomb blasts in recent years - at Hyderabad's Mecca Masjid, at Ajmer, Goa, Malegaon in Maharashtra and Modasa in Gujarat.