By UNI
NEW DELHI: The BJP on Monday stepped up attack on Congress over the 'Muslim party' row and said with the reported statement from a Congress leader confirming that Rahul Gandhi had said so, the grand old party now only stands exposed.
"Congress aaj be naqab hui hae (The Congress party stands exposed and their mask has fallen)," BJP leader and Union Minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters here.
"The remarks attributed to Rahul Gandhi are not one of a kind that could be ignored. Even in past, Congress has indulged in such communal politics," he said.
Javadekar said the Sikh riots of 1984 in Delhi - which was often "justified" by Congress leaders bears testimony to the fact that the Congress has always pursued and thrived in the politics of communalism.
"Only genocide the country has seen was in 1984 when 3000 Sikhs were killed in the capital," he said.
Similarly, he said no proper probe was ordered into the Bhagalpur riots of 1980s wherein several Muslims were killed.
Referring to the highly controversial Shah Bano case that surfaced during Rajiv Gandhi's tenure as Prime Minister, the Minister said in this case even the country's constitution was changed just to draw political mileage.
Javadekar cited other instances wherein Congress leaders in the past had tried to reach out to the Muslim population by flagging off communal and wrong issues.
"The Congress mindset has come out in public not for the first time. The country and the BJP now wants Rahul Gandhi to answer why he is "silent" on the issue that was triggered off after a media report in a Urdu newspaper that quotes Congress president of saying that the Cong is a party of Muslims," he said.
Javadekar said as Union Home Minister in Manmohan Singh government, Sushilkumar Shinde had also directed the states that "cases against Muslim youths on terror charges should be released".
He further said none other than former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said that the Muslims have the first claim on country's national resources.
Earlier in a tweet, BJP spokesman Sambit Patra said, "In an interview to,'Inquilab', the Congress' Minority Cell President Nadeem Javed has reiterated that Rahul Gandhi was right in saying "Haan, hum Musalmano ka party j hae".
"Javed further says Rahul Gandhi is meeting Muslim and very soon he will be presiding over a Muslim Convention," Mr Patra wrote in the micro blogging site.
