BJP defends Sangeet Som, says opposition targeting party 'over irrelevant issues'

New Delhi: Under attack over controversial statements by its leaders on lynching of a man over rumours that he had eaten beef, BJP on Monday said opposition parties were targeting it over "irrelevant issues" because they had nothing to attack the party on its agenda of development.

BJP secretary Sidharth Nath Singh also defended party MLA Sangeet Som over his comment that "befitting reply will be given as was done in Muzaffarnagar" if innocents were framed, saying there was nothing "objectionable" in it.

"In a democracy if an innocent is forcibly made a culprit, then it amounts to murder of democracy. I don't think there is anything objectionable in what he said. The Samajwadi government has done nothing in the state. They (critics) have nothing to attack us on the issue of good governance and development. So they are raising irrelevant issues," he said.

Som, who was accused of making inflammatory speeches during the 2013 Muzaffarnagar communal riots, had alleged that the state government was acting in a biased manner like it did during violence in western Uttar Pradesh two years ago and was shielding those who had "slaughtered cow".