Salman Khurshid (File Photo)
Terming senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid’s statement that “there is blood on our hands” as unfortunate, former party MP from Lakhimpur Kheri Zafar Ali Naqvi said that Congress has always fought against communal forces and stood for secular politics in the country.
The state Congress leadership, however, distanced itself from both Kurshid’s and Naqvi’s remarks.
Claiming that Congress has always stood for social harmony, Naqvi, in a statement on Wednesday, said: “Salman Khurshid’s statement is given in his personal capacity but it is unfortunate that he has said these words in context of the Congress party.”
Naqvi added that today the “whole country is looking towards the Congress and its leader Rahul Gandhi for establishment of secular forces in the country.” He further said that “the Indian public whether they belong to majority or the minority community (has) always believed in the secular politics of the Congress”.
Naqvi said that “communal forces always created riots like situations in different parts of the country in order to come to power… They are the main force behind communal riots in the country.”
Maintaining distance from both the Congress leaders’ statements, state party president Raj Babbar said: “Our stand is clear that we neither associated ourselves with the earlier remark nor with this one. He (Naqvi) must have given his statement in a personal capacity and the party has nothing to react on the same.”
Khurshid made the remarks while addressing students at Aligarh Muslim University on Sunday. He was responding to a question on the communal riots that took place when the Congress was in power. “It is a political question. There is blood on our hands. I am also a part of the Congress so let me admit that we have blood on our hands,” he had said.