Gujarat BJP calls SC verdict on Zakia Jafri's plea 'victory of truth'
blames Congress for 'conspiracy' to frame Modi
Ahmedabad, Jun 24: Welcoming the Supreme Court's verdict on Zakia Jafri's petition as a "victory of truth", Gujarat BJP chief C R Paatil on Friday said the petition was an attempt by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's detractors to malign his image.
Congress tried to frame Modi in riot cases as part of a political conspiracy despite the fact that a Special Investigation Team (SIT) had given him a clean chit, he alleged.
The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed Zakia Jafri's plea alleging a larger conspiracy behind the 2002 post-Godhra riots in Gujarat. The court upheld the SIT's clean chit to then chief minister Narendra Modi and 63 others.
Zakia, whose husband and former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri was killed during the riots, had challenged the SIT's closure report.
"In its judgment, the Supreme Court has said that the case was intentionally kept alive for 16 years due to some vested interests, and appropriate action should be taken against those who are involved in the misuse of legal process," said Paatil in a statement.
"The judgement is the victory of truth as the Supreme Court has given a clean chit to Modi today by rejecting the petition. Congress and other Modi opponents have once again failed to implicate the PM in false cases. The entire nation saw how low Congress can stoop to acquire power," the BJP leader added.
State BJP general secretary Rajni Patel said Modi's opponents and Congress wanted to stop his political rise.
"Anti-Modi and anti-Gujarat people have been trying to stop Modi and Gujarat's progress for a long time. Since Congress had also received a hint that Modi would form government at the Centre, it also joined those elements to stop Modi. The SC noticed that the case was intentionally kept alive" said Patel.
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PM must explain why his govt scrapped Backward Region Grant Fund: Congress
New Delhi(PTI): The Congress on Friday hit out at the BJP for "scrapping" the Backward Region Grant Fund in 2015 and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to explain why his government "callously" did away with the "forward-thinking" scheme of the UPA.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh posed questions to the prime minister ahead of his rallies in Uttar Pradesh.
"Why has the Modi Sarkar scrapped the Backward Regions Grant Fund? Why has the BJP neglected UP's mentha farmers? Why has CM Yogi repeatedly lied about reopening the Budhwal Sugar Mill?" Ramesh said.
Elaborating on what he said were "jumla details", the Congress leader said the Backward Region Grant Fund, aimed at uplifting the backward districts of India, was "callously scrapped" by the Modi government in 2015.
"This forward-thinking scheme was established by the UPA government in 2006 and by 2013, Uttar Pradesh's backward districts had received benefits worth Rs 4000 crore from it," he said.
Ramesh pointed out that in 2015, the Modi government discontinued separate budgetary allocations for this scheme, transferring it to states and slashing annual funding to the Rajiv Gandhi Panchayat Sashaktikaran Abhiyan (RGPSA) from Rs 1,006 crore to just Rs 60 crore.
"This came as a significant blow to districts like Fatehpur that received crucial development funds from the scheme. Can the outgoing PM explain why his government so callously scrapped the Backward Region Grant Fund?" Ramesh said in a post on X.
Pointing out that India is the world's largest producer and exporter of mentha oil and UP alone accounts for 90 per cent of India's total production, Ramesh claimed that the mentha oil industry is now reeling from convoluted tax classifications, high GST, and general government neglect.
"Instead of trying to support farmers and processors, the government is trying to extract maximum revenue from the industry. First, the government follows a dual policy for mentha - it is classified as an industrial product under GST, but it is classified as agricultural produce when it comes to the Mandi Tax," he said.
This enables double taxation - GST as an industrial product, Mandi Tax as an agricultural product, Ramesh said.
"Farmers already have to pay the 12% GST on mentha oil sales, and under the new Reverse Charge Mechanism (RCM), RCM is levied on purchase. Mentha oil processors are forced to take on the tax liability when purchasing mentha oil from farmers and therefore take on dual tax liability," he said.
Finally, despite mentha being an entirely export-oriented product, the government provides no incentives to boost production, processing, or export, Ramesh claimed.
Why have the outgoing PM and the BJP neglected such an important Indian export, he asked.
"Even after repeated promises from PM Modi and CM Yogi, the Budhwal Sugar Mill remains inactive," he said.
"The PM first promised to revive all of UP's inactive sugar mills in 2014.Then in 2017, before assembly elections, Yogi Adityanath said that the mill would be revived if the BJP formed the government. The BJP won and formed the government but the mill remained inactive," Ramesh said.
Again, in 2022, CM Yogi Adityanath promised to restart the mill and even approved a supplementary budget of Rs 50 crore for the project, he said.
"The government also began to acquire land near the mill, raising hopes of its revival. However, months have now passed and no construction work has been initiated. After all of the BJP's promises, can the outgoing PM explain why the Budhwal Sugar Mill still remains inactive?" Ramesh said and asked the prime minister to break his "silence" on these issues.
