Report on Aseemanand sponsored by Cong: BJP

“Swami Aseemanand emphatically denies to have had any close door meeting with senior leaders of the alleged social organization in year 2005 or afterward,” the statement said. The BJP termed the allegations a politically motivated design by the Congress. “It is a Congress-sponsored exercise. Congress knows that they have no answers on burning issues like corruption, unemployment, sense of insecurity and price rise, among others. Therefore these diversionary tactics are being deployed by them. This is the third such diversionary attempt, (after) the Prime Minister saying Modi to be disastrous for the country, (and) Sonia Gandhi charging ‘zeher ki kheti’,” BJP deputy leader in Rajya Sabha Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters on Thursday.

He also doubted the veractiy of the interview, saying that “we are hearing for the first time that an interview has happened over a span of two years”. “This is the work of dirty tricks department before elections,” Prasad said. Aseemanand’s lawyer said the interview was “a clear cut example of a larger conspiracy to interfere in administration of justice and design to violate the human rights and the interests of an undertrial prisoner”, and threatened to “take all legal action” against the magazine.