Prakash Javadekar attacked Congress president Rahul Gandhi over the remarks. (File)
The BJP on Monday intensified its attack on Rahul Gandhi over his alleged remarks stating that Congress is a ‘Muslim party’. Terming Congress as “communal”, senior BJP leader and HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar asked Gandhi to come out with a clarification over the remarks.
Addressing a press conference, Javadekar said that the “divisive” politics of the Congress has damaged the country. The remarks come a day after the Congress slammed prime minister Narendra Modi for using the reference during a public event in Azamgarh.
Javadekar said, “Gandhi’s remarks show that Congress is a communal party. Its appeasement politics has damaged the country. History of partition is a testimony to this.” He said the Congress has a “divisive ideology”, pointing to the “only genocide” India witnessed in 1984 when thousands of Sikhs were killed during the party’s rule. He later questioned, “Why Rahul Gandhi is silent about it, why does not he come out in open?”
Earlier on Sunday, Union minister Ravi Shanker Prasad had targetted Congress and said that Gandhi became a “janeudhari” and flaunted his Brahmin lineage when he went to Gujarat and Karnataka for election campaigns. After the polls, he is patronising Muslims, he said.
Quoting a report from the Inquilab, Defence Minister N Sitharaman had alleged that the Rahul Gandhi chief told Muslim intellectuals during a meeting at his residence that “Congress is a Muslim party”. Sitharaman further said the Congress is “playing a dangerous game… of communal politics” and will be “solely responsible if any disharmony plays out between now and the 2019 elections”.