According to a report published in the Economic Times, self-styled godman Asaram had submitted to the court citation letters from former presidents KR Narayanan and APJ Abdul Kalam, former vice president Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, and Congress leaders Digvijay Singh, Kamal Nath and Kapil Sibal, among others, to bolster his claim of having performed charitable acts over the years. However, the court, which sentenced him to life imprisonment for raping a minor girl, dismissed the citations saying Asaram had spoilt the name of saints among the people of the country.
These letters which were produced in the court praised him for working in tribal areas for the poor and stopping forced religious conversions. He accused the victim and her family of implicating him in the rape case for blackmailing him to cough up Rs 50 crore. But the court disbelieved such claims, terming them an afterthought.
“Such citation letters show that the accused is an influential and an immensely powerful person,” the court said in its detailed judgement, citing the letters furnished before it from personalities including former Haryana chief minister Bansi Lal and former governors Balram Jakhar and Sudarshan Agrawal, and veteran members of the Congress party.
This comes as an epiphany, since all this while it seems the Congress has been barking up the wrong tree. We had earlier reported that the Congress party had floated an attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi when its official Twitter handle tweeted an old video showing PM Modi sharing the stage with Asaram. In its constant attempt to devalue Prime Minister’s image, the congressmen seem to deliberately remain amnesic.
The court clearly mentioned that the citation letter produced in court, was by Congress leaders Digvijay Singh, Kamal Nath and Kapil Sibal and few others, tried to prove the rapist Asaram, not guilty. In a constant quest to tarnish BJP’s reputation congressmen seem to obfuscate facts as a matter of habit.