BJP today came out in defence of Janata Party President Subramanium Swamy,alleging that cases filed against him for his controversial article are due to the "Emergency mindset" of Congress and its vindictive attitude because of his "relentless pursuit" of 2G case. Clarifying at the outset that the party did not agree with the views of Swamy,who had written a provocative article in a newspaper,BJP said in a democracy everybody should have the freedom of expression. "BJP strongly condemns Congress politics of vindictiveness and its Emergency mindset. A sponsored campaign to file many civil suits against Subramaniam Swamy at various locations throughout the country is a case in point," BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said. He claimed that the government's design seems to be to victimise and harass Swamy because of his "relentless pursuit" in the 2G spectrum case. BJP maintained that it is due to Swamy's "fearless efforts" that the CBI probe is now being monitored by the Supreme Court which has also sought a personal affidavit from the Prime Minister on Swamy's application and reserved its order on culpability of Home Minister P Chidambaram. "As the Congress cannot fight him legally,it is trying to harass him by such antics," Javadekar alleged. The opposition party alleged that government is adopting different yardsticks for dealing with Swamy. "The Congress-led government did not file and proceed against naked anti-national speeches delivered by author Arundhati Roy and separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Gilani in Delhi but chooses to follow up with the cases against every whistleblower," Javadekar said. "The Congress is worried in the 2G case.. It wants to take revenge. The Congress mindset is that if you oppose me,you will face a 100 suits," Javadekar alleged. BJP also hit out at the Congress-led government for a recent Cabinet decision which gives Information and Broadcasting Ministry the authority to cancel licenses of news channels if they violate norms. "The emergency mindset is also on display while framing the rules and giving the authority to Information and Broadcasting Ministry to cancel licenses of news channels in an effort to gag the press. As the media is exposing various scams of the UPA,the Congress wants to take away their freedom by hook or by crook," Javadekar said. He insisted that just prior to the Emergency in 1975,the Congress had behaved in a similar fashion. The opposition party said the Congress has the habit of not keeping its words after making promises. "BJP condemns Congress politics of shirking away from the responsibility and the commitment it has made earlier. Sluggish efforts or no efforts to bring back black money stashed in foreign banks and changing the definition of the poor by filing ridiculous affidavit in an effort to lower the burden of providing food security are all examples of such callous and anti-people politics," Javadekar said.
