By avoiding the Press on Tuesday, the BJP sought to distance itself from senior leader Sushma Swaraj’s allegations that the blasts in Ahmedabad and Bangalore were part of a plot to distract attention from the cash-for-votes scandal and that the UPA was out to win back Muslim votes.BJP spokespersons were absent from the routine 3 pm briefing, and party functionaries, including general secretary Arun Jaitley — whose 9, Ashoka Road sees the attendance of the entire Press corps for a ‘post-briefing session’ almost everyday — giving out little, it was left to others to take a stand on Sushma’s observations.Party general secretary Vinay Katiyar told The Indian Express: “I said it first, immediately after the July 22 trust vote, in Uttar Pradesh. Sushma Swaraj reiterated it a day later. After the tainted confidence vote, this (the blasts) is part of the UPA government strategy to put BJP state governments in the dock. Those guilty of such heinous crimes should be flogged in full public view.”Party vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, not known to be on best of terms with Sushma Swaraj, too, sprang to her defence: “Sushma’s statement on the blasts has a firm basis. Else, how could the blasts have hit the country after the July 22 trust vote?”Party secretary Balbir Punj, however, sought to puncture the thesis. “Pakistan has been waging a proxy war against India for a long time. The recent blasts in Bangalore and Ahmedabad are part of that,” said the Rajya Sabha MP.On the BJP refusing to have a full-fledged Press conference to clear the air, a senior party leader said: “Why should Sushma alone be put in the dock? Did Jaswantji have the party’s sanction when he offered the Mulayam-Amar Singh duo prime ministership? And isn’t just everyone in the party drawing their own Lakshman Rekha?”Like the NDA allies, the RSS, too, is learnt to have conveyed to the BJP brass that the political slugfest on terror amounted to exonerating terrorists.
