Godhra

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<span style='font-family:Courier'>Cong tries to woo back Muslims after Bush visit’

Press Trust Of India
Posted online: Monday, March 06, 2006 at 1754 hours IST
Updated: Monday, March 06, 2006 at 1755 hours IST

New Delhi, March 6: Terming as "disgraceful" the disruption of Parliamentary proceedings by non-NDA members on the Godhra issue, the Opposition BJP today slammed it as an attempt by the Congress to woo back its Muslim supporters in the aftermath of US President George Bush's visit.

"It is perhaps for the first time that members of the ruling party have stormed the Well of the House and disrupted proceedings. It is the same Congress party which had once accused us of wasting valuable Parliament time and money and made Rahul Gandhi sit near Mahatma Gandhi's statue in protest", party spokesman V K Malhotra told reporters here.

Criticising the government for making public the report without tabling it in Parliament, he recalled that after the interim report of the U C Banerjee committee was made public ahead of the Bihar Assembly elections, the NDA not only won in the state but also swept the Gujarat civic polls.

"Even the Muslims in both states did not vote for the Congress. The Banerjee report being made public when the Supreme Court is monitoring the probe and Nanavati Commission is investigating the matter shows the race for minority votes, particularly in the wake of the large scale protests by Muslims against the Bush visit," he said.

Charging the non-NDA parties with "losing their balance "for vote bank politics, Malhotra accused justice Banerjee with "discrediting the institution by giving pliable and amenable statements". He also reiterated the party's charge that the Indo-US nuclear deal "as it is before us" is not in India's interests.</span>