'Where is the food?': Rahul Gandhi warns BJP's Hindu-Muslim politics will be overtaken by economic crisis

New Delhi: BJP will not be able to play the Hindu-Muslim polarisation game for long as people the discourse is soon going to move to the rich-poor divide that the Narendra Modi government will not be able to handle, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi has told an internal Congress meet.

Rahul made the remarks at the first meeting of National Advisory Council of Congress’ Minority Department on Saturday attended by leaders, including KC Venugopal, Tariq Anwar, Abhishek Singhvi, Imran Pratapgarhi, Syed Naseer Hussain, Hibi Eden, Jeby Mather and Gurdeep Sappal.

Sources said he responded to queries from leaders about the BJP’s “Hindu-Muslim polarisation” and the Congress strategy to prevent it. Rahul is learnt to have told the leaders that the politics of Hindu-Muslim polarisation will soon be overtaken by the economic crisis faced by people.

Rahul told them that the rich-poor divide is increasing and people would soon be asking “where is food”, as the country is staring at an economic crisis following the West Asia crisis and other international developments.

He said the Modi government “will not be able to handle this”, according to sources.

The top Congress leader was of the view that the agenda will shift, as the ruling BJP would not be able to run the polarisation plank for a long term. He said it was BJP that had changed the narrative from rich-poor divide to polarisation but it is changing owing to international market dynamics.

Amid reports that Rahul made a comment that the Modi government will fall within a year, the BJP accused him of acting at the behest of foreign forces and conspiring to destabilise the dispensation by “creating anarchy” in the country.

Senior BJP leader and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal alleged that Rahul’s remarks pointed to a “massive conspiracy” by a “toolkit gang” dreaming of destabilising India. “This is no ordinary statement. Rather, it constitutes a grave conspiracy aimed at spreading anarchy in the country,” he said.

Sources said Rahul also reiterated his stand that the Congress leaders should not shy away from using the word Muslim, as often it has been observed that instead of explicitly saying Muslim, they use the term minority.

Similarly, sources said he also maintained that if Dalits, OBCs or others face attacks, the issue should be raised by explicitly identifying that specific community.

Rahul also referred to ‘vote theft’ during his interaction and spoke about West Bengal and Assam Assembly elections, which he claimed was not “free and fair”.