Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani clarified on Thursday that neither he nor his party had any role in the recent controversy where two Muslim drivers of Kerala Police were allegedly removed from his motorcade and said his party did not believe in discrimination on the basis of religion.
In a statement issued on Thursday, Advani said, "A controversy is sought to be created with insinuations directed at my party. I would like to state that neither I nor any one in my party had any knowledge whatsoever of the incident, which I have come to know only through the media."
The BJP's prime ministerial candidate was on a visit to Calicut on October 14 for the Vijay Sankalp rally of the party when the incident took place.
Advani said no instructions were given either by him or his party to remove the two Muslim police drivers. "We don't believe in discrimination on the basis of religion in any matter," the BJP leader stated.
Later, BJP spokesperson Prakash Javdekar claimed in a press conference that Congress was behind the incident and its undue publicity.
"This seems to be the handiwork of the Dirty Tricks Department of the Congress Party to malign the opposition in an attempt to arouse communal passions," he said, adding, "The BJP demands that the central government should come clean on the subject."
He added that members of the car protection team, which had two inspectors, three sub-inspectors, and doctors in the ambulance were all from the Muslim community.
