Gadkari attacks Shinde over his remarks on BJP, RSS

BJP chief Nitin Gadkari today hit out at Sushilkumar Shinde for his remarks on the party and RSS, saying the statement made by the Union Home Minister was "an insult to the entire nation".

Addressing a party rally here, Gadkari said BJP will stage nation-wide protests on January 24 against Shinde's remarks with a slogan "Hindu bhagwa ka apman nahi sahega Hindustan (Country will not tolerate the insult of Hindu Community)."

"The then Home Minister P Chidambaram had talked about saffron terrorism, and now his successor Shinde has levelled allegations of Hindu terrorism. The manner in which Shinde has commented on RSS and BJP, its an insult to the country," Gadkari said. He said the party will demand that both PM Manmohan Singh and UPA chief Sonia Gandhi should apologise before the Hindu society for the statement made by the Home Minister.

Gadkari accused the Congress-led UPA government of promoting terrorism, and said Shinde's comments "getting a support from" LeT founder Hafiz Saeed was a serious issue.

Attacking Manmohan and Sonia, Gadkari alleged that the two leaders "remained silent for nine days" when two Indian soldiers were killed by Pakistani troops. In his address, senior party leader Murli Manohar Joshi accused the Congress of dividing the society in the name of Hindu and Muslim terrorism, and said nationalist organisations like BJP and RSS will not let it succeed in its efforts.

He claimed such statements are out of the nervousness that is prevailing in the party, as it knows it is not going to come back to power in 2014 Lok Sabha polls. BJP leader and MP from Ghaziabad Rajnath Singh said if voted to power, his party will revert the decision of FDI in retail.

Targeting UPA's economic policies, Rajnath said during six-year rule of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the Central government kept the inflation under control and the country emerged as an economic power.