JOIN USAttempting to paint the Congress as "anti-Hindu", the BJP on Monday dubbed it a "Muslim party", which is the "worst communal" outfit in the country.
The BJP has once again used the report from an Urdu newspaper to target the main Opposition party while asking why Congress president Rahul Gandhi was not denying the remarks attributed to him that his party is a Muslim party.
On Friday, the party fielded Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to speak on the issue while on Monday it fielded HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar to up the ante.
For the last two months, the BJP is continuously targeting the Congress using remarks and statements by their leaders and accusing it of being anti-Hindu as well as pro-Pakistan. It has now started dubbing the Congress a Muslim party following the Urdu paper report.
Addressing a press conference, Javadekar said, "Congress is the most communal party in India. Rahul Gandhi said Congress is a Muslim party. While Congress leaders are denying that he did not say it, Rahul is silent. He is not denying and he can't deny."
Javadekar said the Congress's chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala denied it but the Congress minority wing chief Nadeem Javed has given a statement to the same Urdu newspaper supporting it. However, Javed has clarified that his comments were distorted and that he only said that Congress is a party for Muslims too.
"This is not the first instance. The Congress is a communal party. Otherwise, how can Shashi Tharoor talk about a Hindu-Pakistan? Those who do not understand the country and its culture should not speak. Then Congress has now cancelled a programme in Kerala where they were to organise a good programme on Ramayana and linking with Mahatma Gandhi's concept of Ram Rajya. They cancelled it because they are a Muslim party," Javadekar said.
He also claimed the only genocide that took place in the country was in 1984, the anti-Sikh riots, under the Congress rule. While he mentioned Bhagalpur riots, too, Javadekar did not refer to the 2002 Gujarat riots when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the chief minister of the state.
Referring to Modi's statements asking why the Congress is a party of Muslim men as it opposes Triple Talaq Bill, Javadekar said the Opposition party had earlier subverted the Shah Bano case judgement. “It shows the typical mindset of the Congress. It has surrendered to communalists. It plays the worst kind of communal politics,” he said.
Claiming that former prime minister Manmohan Singh had earlier remarked that Muslims should have the first right to natural resources, Javadekar said, “You want to distribute natural resources on the basis of religion, you want to divide geography?”