Click to play videoNew Delhi: The Congress seems to be shifting its stand on Parliament attack convict Mohammed Afzal alias Afzal Guru with Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh saying he should be hanged.
"Congress has no sympathies whatsoever for terrorists. Afzal should be hanged. There is no doubt about it," Digvijay said.
Digvijay's statement on Afzal is being seen as an attempt to counter Bharatiya Janata Party's campaign that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance is soft on terror.
Digvijay said that his party will have no sympathies for terrorists and claimed that Congress never supported Afzal.
However, Congress had earlier said that there was no urgency to dispose of the clemency petition of Afzal Guru, while the BJP was for dismissing his clemency petition now before President Pratibha Patil.
Congress spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan, however, denied that the party has changed its stand on Afzal.
"The BJP is exploiting terror. The congress has always had zero tolerance to terror. I don't think any clarification is required. I believe what Digvijay said was a statement of fact the mercy petition is pending. The BJP is politicising terror for electoral gains. This is unhealthy democracy. I have no doubt that what he was stating is that law will be followed," Natarajan said.
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