12 hurt as Congress, BJP activists clash

In a high voltage drama yesterday, workers of the rival Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress party clashed twice in the metropolis leaving at least 12 persons of the two parties injured and opening a floodgate of accusations.

Ambika Sonia, the national general secretary of the Congress party, and the BJP women's wing president Kanta Nalwade were among the 12 who sustained injuries in the melee outside the Congress party President Sonia Gandhi's 10 Janpath residence.

In a retaliatory action, workers of the Youth Congress stormed the BJP national central office at Ashoka Road and pelted stones while causing some damage there.

The local Delhi Police have registered cases of rioting and violation of prohibitory orders, asserting that action will be taken against those found guilty.

Trouble erupted when scores of BJP women's wing activists reached outside Sonia's residence in batches and held demonstrations defying prohibitory orders, accusing the Congress party of criminalisation of politics following the killing of a Congress party councillor Atma Ram Gupta at the behest of his fellow Congress party councillor Sharda Jain, who is already in police custody.

Led by Nalwade and former Delhi legislator Purnima Sethi, the BJP activists raised slogans against Sonia Gandhi and the Congress party.

The Congress party, however, says that BJP hooligans used the women activists as a front and intended to enter Sonia's residence and harm her physically.

"They were armed with sharp-edged weapons, stones and glass bottles and attacked our workers led by Soni when stopped from entering the narrow lane leading to Sonia's residence," a Congress party worker said.

According to Soni, who was hit by a stone on her head and received treatment at the Parliament House Annexe clinic, the policemen present on the spot not only failed to restrain the BJP workers, but also joined them in attacking her party workers.

Soni's BJP counterpart Arun Jaitley, however, contradicted the claim saying their demonstration against "criminalisation of politics" was peaceful and blamed the Congress workers for attacking his party workers. "Everybody has a right in a democracy to express his/her views, but it cannot be countered by violence," Jaitley said.

The Congress party, which filed an FIR, has since asked for an explanation from both Premier Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his deputy Lal Krishna Advani, wondering how the BJP workers were allowed to stage a demonstration in a high-security zone defying prohibitory orders.

The BJP, in a counter-allegation, said that Soni led a mob that attacked their peaceful demonstrations in the presence of two senior Congress party leaders Oscar Fernandes and Mukul Wasnik.

Later in the afternoon, a contingent of Youth Congress workers, renowned for their indisciplined behaviour, reached the BJP central office and started throwing stones. They gave vent to their anger on the pictures of Vajpayee and Advani which adorn the entry gate to the BJP office.


The BJP workers present inside the building resented and a second round of clashes took place there between the workers of India's two largest political parties.

The twin clashes on busy roads threw the traffic completely out of gear, causing massive traffic jams.

Later, addressing the media, Soni said that while their getting roughed up was part of a politician's life, they cannot tolerate any attempt to harm their leader Sonia. "If anything happens to her, Advani will be held responsible since he heads the home ministry," she said.

The BJP leaders were quick to point out that only recently some women activists of the Congress party had also held a similar demonstration outside Parlia-mentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan's residence, defying prohibitory orders after he was named by the wife of the prime accused in journalist Shivani Bhatnagar's murder case as being behind her killing.

Gupta's murder by a fellow Congress leader Sharda Jain has come as a major embarrassment for the Congress, which will be hard pressed to retain power in Delhi when state assembly polls are held next year.