I want to win with Hindu votes, Hindus too should win with Muslim votes: Azad

Ghaziabad: Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Monday launched a scathing attack on BJP, accusing it of igniting the “flame of hatred” to divert attention from people’s issues for electoral gains.
Addressing a public rally in Muradnagar, Azad said, “Religion and politics are two different things. If I win on Muslim votes, how will I care for Hindus, Sikhs and Christians? I do not want to become a leader of a particular community. I want to win with Hindu votes and Hindus should win with Muslim votes,” he said, adding, “But BJP has adopted this path and for them, secular Hindu is not Hindu. For them, those who abuse Muslims are Hindus. In which religion is it written? It is not written in Quran that those who abuse Hindus are true Muslims, neither is it written in the Gita that who will lynch Muslim will be Hindu (sic).”

Azad added BJP gets votes in the name of religion, and it’s “Bharat” that loses. “Our country is respected for its culture. People from across the world come here to learn about tolerance. This is our Bharat,” he said. “The day our Hindu brethren will determine that they are being used, BJP will vanish.”

Taking on BJP on the approach to terrorism, a day after CM Yogi Adityanath said in Ghaziabad “Congress ke log aatankwadiyon ko biryani khilate the”, Azad said while BJP claims to be tough on terrorism, it was the saffron party’s government that had released terrorist Masood Azhar and escorted him to Kandahar in Afghanistan.

The Congress leader also urged the gathering to demand Rs 15 lakh from BJP before voting for the party in the Lok Sabha election. “This is legal money. The PM had promised to deposit Rs 15 lakh in everyone’s account after bringing back the black money,” he said.

Azad, who is also leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha, also urged his audience not to vote for the SP-BSP alliance, with whom the Congress had earlier been in seat-sharing negotiations, saying this was an election to choose a new government at the Centre and not at the state level. “This fight is not between Congress and SP-BSP, but with BJP. So don’t waste your vote on the alliance which has no existence at the national level.”

Former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda also campaigned for the party’s Ghaziabad candidate Dolly Sharma and said the farmers were the worst affected section of the society during Modi’s rule. Sharma accused the incumbent MP General VK Singh (retd) of not standing with people of Ghaziabad in their hour of need. “If elected, I will never go anywhere but work for Ghaziabad tirelessly,” she said.