Mumbai: After facing a backlash from Muslims for her statement that the government should file an appeal against the acquittal of 12 men accused in the July 2006 terror attack in Mumbai, Congress Member of Parliament Varsha Gaikwad said that her words were misconstrued.
"Do not twist my words. What I wanted to ask the government is that the case went on for 18 years. Now that the accused have been declared innocent, will the government compensate them for the time they spent in jail? I also want to ask the government when they will catch the real culprits and provide justice to the victims and their families," Gaikwad told the media.
However, Muslims said that Gaikwad's words are hardly reassuring. "Her words have already done the damage. Changing her statement due to party pressure does not change anything. She said what she believed and has corrected her statement because her party has asked her to," said Ishtiyaq Shaikh of Al Ansari, a community group based in Kurla.
Gaikwad, in her defence, said that she was a follower of Babasaheb Ambedkar and believed in the country's Constitution. However, Mufti Manzar Ashrafi, chairman of Hazrat Ali Foundation, said Gaikwad's words echoed the views of the RSS. "It is a matter of shame that you are questioning the release of people who have been declared innocent after spending 19 years in jail. Please ask their families what they went through. Many of their parents died during the period. It means you do not have faith in the country's court," said Ashrafi.
Gaikwad won the Mumbai North Central Parliamentary seat with approximately 445,000 votes, securing a slender margin of 16,514 votes over the BJP candidate, advocate Ujwal Nikam. The BJP had won the seat earlier, and Gaikwad's win was attributed to the support of Muslim voters who number around four lakh. Muslims accused her of deserting her voters. "She has proved that she is two-faced. She has backstabbed her voters," said Ashrafi.
Shaikh accused Gaikwad of displaying her real political ideology. "The men spent 19 years in jail, and you are talking about sending them back to jail. It seems Gaikwad has already decided that these men are guilty. She did not say that the real culprits should be punished," said Shaikh.
Yusuf Abrahani, a former Congress MLA who is now with the Samajwadi Party, accused Gaikwad of lying that she was misunderstood. "She is now saying that she asked for compensation for the men who have been acquitted. I have a video of her original statement, and I will add her latest statement to prove she is lying. After my statement and the criticism from Muslim leaders, she was under tremendous pressure to retract her words. The entire community is against her," said Abrahani. "We cannot stop people from giving their opinion. However, Gaikwad criticised the judgment without reading the full order."
