Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee president C D Patel and Leader of the Opposition Amarsinh Chaudhary have also alleged that Minister of State for Home Haren Pandya had misled the national press and his party MPs at a recent press conference in New Delhi where he issued ``wrong facts and figures'' regarding the law and order situation and number of crimes in Gujarat.

Chaudhary has warned that statistical jugglery with sensitive figures like number of crimes registered in the State in post-Babri riots and in the present only showed the escapist mentality of the ruling party.

The GPCC president feared that this would result in a deterioration of the law and order situation in the State, leading to total anarchy. He claimed that the Government was painting a rosy picture of Gujarat in Delhi while mammoth rallies of Christians taken out in different parts of the State in protest against their persecution by Sangh Parivar and other fanatic outfits showed an altogether different and dismal scenario.

The two leaders said it was unfortunate that the Minister of State for Home had tried to underplay the seriousness of the situation by presenting figures concerning only deaths and other injuries while completely overlooking the number of rapes, incidents of looting, dowry deaths, harassment of brides etc.

The Congress leaders said that the BJPGovernment could not claim credit for a fall in the crime graph as compared to 1992-93 because crimes had come down only due to the fact that mischief mongers responsible for rising crime in the past had themselves have come to power now.

Chaudhary also said that the BJP government encouraged persecution of minorities despite its protestations.