Congress communal, its appeasement politics damaged India: BJP

New Delhi: The ruling BJP today again attacked Rahul Gandhi over his reported remark that the Congress is “a Muslim party” and said his comment showed that the opposition party is “communal” and “divisive”.

Addressing a press conference at the BJP office in New Delhi, senior BJP leader Prakash Javadekar asked Gandhi to come out and clarify his remark. He also said that the “divisive” politics of the Congress party damaged the country. The BJP has asked Gandhi to break his “silence” on the matter after he reportedly told an Urdu daily that the Congress is a Muslim party.

Union minister Ravi Shanker Prasad said yesterday 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. Javadekar said: “Gandhi’ remarks show that Congress is a communal party. Its appeasement politics has damaged the country. History of partition is testimony to this.”

He said the Congress has a “divisive idealogy”, pointing to the “only genocide” India witnessed in 1984, when thousands of Sikhs were killed during the party’s rule. The Congress stands exposed in front of people, Javadekar asserted. He questioned “Why Rahul Gandhi is silent about it, why does not he come out in open.”

Javadekar claimed that the minority cell president of the Congress, Nadeem Javed, has justified Gandhi’s remark and asserted he was right in saying that Congress is a Muslim party. The BJP leader also questioned why Gandhi has not spoken about the practice of triple talaq, and said whether the opposition party has place only for Muslim men and not women.

The Monsoon Session of Parliament is set to begin on Wednesday and the Triple Talaq Bill tops the government’s agenda. But Gandhi today wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, asking him to ensure the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill in this session. Yesterday, Union Minister Ravi Shanker Prasad asked Gandhi to break his silence on his Muslim party remark.

Prasad also said that when Rahul Gandhi goes to Gujarat for elections, he becomes a janeudhari (one who wears the sacred thread) and flaunts his Brahmin lineage. He does the same in Karnataka. Now when the elections are over, he starts patronising the Muslims.