3 days later, Cong says SC’s Zakia verdict ‘disappointing’, party stands by family

The party’s first official reaction came on Saturday, after Home Minister Amit Shah hailed the verdict and accused a triad of political parties opposed to the BJP, some journalists, and some NGOs of having given publicity to “these allegations”.

The Congress then countered, with party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi saying that the Supreme Court judgment should not be politicised, and that “everybody should bow down to a Supreme Court judgment”.

On Monday, Jairam Ramesh, AICC general secretary in charge of communication, put out a statement saying that the“Supreme Court judgment in Zakia Jafri case is “deeply disappointing” and that many fundamental questions still remain unanswered.

“What is the Constitutional and moral responsibility of the Chief Minister and State Government in cases of large-scale communal riots? Is the responsibility in such cases, only ever that of the Collector and Dy. Commissioner of Police and not of the political executive? Will the Chief Minister, Cabinet and State Government never be held accountable, even if a State is thrown into a circle of violence & riots?” he said.

Ramesh stated, “We stand by our colleague, the late Ahsan Jafri and his family in this hour. What happened to him in a most tragic manner was the result of a fundamental lapse on the part of the state government.”

He said there are some questions that will continue to haunt the Prime Minister.

“…Why was Prime Minister Vajpayee so affected by his [then Gujarat CM’s] lack of action that he had to publicly remind him to do his duty, to follow his ‘Rajdharma’? Was it not the Supreme Court who called out the conduct of the Modi Government in Gujarat as that of “Modern day Nero’s (who) were looking elsewhere when… innocent children and helpless women were burning, and were probably deliberating how the perpetrators of the crime can be saved or protected? Why did sections of the BJP, including now member of the Modi Cabinet, Smriti Irani, protest and call for his dismissal as CM if he was not guilty of any wrongdoing?”

“What about the numerous convictions that have been carried out on the basis of evidence collected by the SIT relating to the Gujarat riots? Can BJP claim that those also stand invalidated? No amount of propaganda by BJP can ever erase these facts,” Ramesh stated.

Although the Congress had reacted cautiously to the arrest of Mumbai-based activist Teesta Setalvad, Ramesh and AICC general secretary Ajay Maken attended a protest meeting in Delhi.