Accusing Congress president Rahul Gandhi of playing divisive politics, the BJP on Tuesday hit out at his party for taking a retrograde stand on triple talaq and being hand-in-gloves with fundamentalists.
Strongly condemning Rahul’s Bahrain speech where he accused the Modi Government of spreading fear and hatred among the jobless youth, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the Congress could not take a stand on triple talaq and now seeks to take the country back to Shah Bano’s time when the Congress yielded to Muslim fundamentalist elements’ anti-women demands.
Rahul’s father and then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had committed a “sin” by passing a law under pressure from Muslim bodies to negate a Supreme Court order to provide alimony to Shah Bano after her husband divorced her, he said. “The BJP strongly condemns Rahul’s irresponsible utterances.... He is spreading hatred among people,” he said.
Prasad contrasted Rahul’s speech with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to 270 Indian origin (PIO) parliamentarians, focusing on boosting ties between India and other countries.
The same Muslim body is now opposing the triple talaq bill, Prasad said, claiming that the Congress’ decision to stall it in Rajya Sabha was a case of double standards influenced by vote bank politics.
Prasad questioned Rahul’s remarks in which he accused the Modi Government of pursuing a divisive agenda to hide its failures, and said they had expected that he would not harp on political differences and “spread hatred in a foreign country as he did in India”.
The BJP leader accused Congress of encouraging reactionary forces represented by PFI in Karnataka and playing ball with people like Umer Khalid, who played anti-national role in Gujarat and Maharashtra.
Citing Mudra loans given to tens of millions of people, rise in road construction works and opening of call centres in tier two cities, Prasad said this has led to creation of employment as he refuted Rahul’s charge that the Government had not created enough jobs.
Rahul had on Tuesday accused the Government of dividing people on the basis of caste and religion, alleging it was converting the anger of jobless youth into hatred among communities.