New Delhi:
BJP leaders who had gathered at Delhi's Jantar Mantar to protest against Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde's "saffron terror" remarks were briefly detained by the police today. From Jantar Mantar, the party had planned to march towards the Home Minister's residence about 5 km away. But the protesters, nearly 25,000 of them, were not allowed to reach their destination at Parliament Street; the Delhi Police had erected barricades about 500 metres away from there.
Party chief Rajnath Singh, who was leading the protests, was also among those detained. Moments before his detention, he reiterated that the BJP wants Mr Shinde to apologise for his comments made last month at a Congress conclave in Jaipur. "I appeal to Sonia Gandhi to get the Home Minister to retract his statement and apologise, otherwise we will continue our protest both out on the streets and inside Parliament," he said. Mr Singh then threatened that his party would "continue our protest inside Parliament unless the Home Minister is sacked."
The main Opposition party has said that if Mr Shinde does not apologise, they will boycott him in Parliament, which will mean not allowing him to speak at all in either House by disrupting proceedings every time he rises.
"Either he should apologise or there will be no cooperation," party leader Arun Jaitley told the gathering at Jantar Mantar. He added that his party "is ready for a full confrontation on this in Parliament."
Mr Shinde had said in Jaipur last month, "We have got an investigation report that be it the RSS or BJP, their training camps are promoting Hindu terrorism." He later said he meant "saffron terrorism" not "Hindu terrorism."
The BJP's Shinde strategy is a key element of its plans for the Budget session of Parliament that begins tomorrow. It is also part of a larger attempt by the party to regroup its traditional Hindu vote bank. The BJP's ideological mentor, the RSS, has mandated a Hindutva relaunch as part of its action plan for general elections 2014.
The BJP's top leadership met yesterday to discuss the party's strategy to take on the Congress-led government in the Budget Session. Today, they will meet leaders from other parties in the National Democratic Alliance or NDA that the BJP leads, to decide on floor strategy.
The NDA will also leverage the 4000-crore VVIP chopper scandal to attack the government on another count of corruption. It has demanded that the government state who the beneficiaries of alleged kickbacks in the deal are. The BJP has also moved adjournment motions on a host of other issues. It plans to raise drought in states like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra, allegations against Rajya Sabha chairman PJ Kurien in the Suryanelli rape case and its dissatisfaction with the government's fuel pricing policy.