Congress, BJP in war of words after Rahul Gandhi calls Muslim League ‘secular’

Rahul Gandhi has described Muslim League as a “completely secular” party at a press meet in Washington but it triggered a war of words between the Congress and the BJP back in India.

The BJP alleged that the Indian Union Muslim League is guided by the same mindset which was behind Mohammad Ali Jinnah's All India Muslim League while the Congress countered it saying Hindutva ideologue Syama Prasad Mookerjee aligned with Jinnah to form a government in Bengal during the British rule and that LK Advani had praised Pakistan's Father of the Nation.

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At a media interaction at the National Press Club in Washington when he was asked about the Congress being in alliance with Muslim League in Kerala from where he was an MP and its secular credentials, Rahul responded: “Muslim League is a completely secular party. There is nothing non-secular about the Muslim League."

BJP found fault with Rahul’s remarks with Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur claiming that “these are the same people who had stayed back after partition. They formed Muslim League after partition and became MPs. They advocated for Sharia law, wanted separate seats reserved for Muslims."

“They are the same people who are part of the same Muslim League. It is Rahul Gandhi and the Congress that see Hindu terrorism but feel Muslim League is secular,” he said.

BJP IT Cell head Amit Malviya said, “Jinnah’s Muslim League, the party responsible for India's partition, on religious lines, according to Rahul Gandhi is a ‘secular’ party. Rahul Gandhi, though poorly read, is simply being disingenuous and sinister here. It is also his compulsion to remain acceptable in Wayanad.”

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Countering the BJP, Congress said Rahul referred to a party which was fundamentally different from Jinnah’s Muslim League for which the Muslim League has “more love”.

Responding to Malviya, Congress Media Department Coordinator Amitabh Dubey said he was confusing IUML with Jinnah’s Muslim League that took Savarkar’s two-nation theory to its logical conclusion. “The same Muslim League with whom BJP founder SP Mookerjee and Hindu Mahasabha formed coalition governments in Bengal, Sind, NWFP (North-West Frontier Province).”

Congress General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh said, “Shyama Prasad Mookerjee was in league with the Muslim League in the government in Bengal when Gandhiji launched Quit India movement. SPM was singularly responsible for the partition of Bengal.”

Congress Media Department Chairman Pawan Khera said Muhammad Ismail, the founder of the Indian Union Muslim League, was a member of the Constituent Assembly and during the war with China, he had offered his son, Miyan Khan, to join the Indian Army.

Khera reminded that the then Prime Minister AB Vajpayee had sent IUML leader E Ahamed to Geneva to represent India and a Muslim League leader was education minister when Kerala established the Sanskrit University in the state. “BJP also made an alliance with IUML in Nagpur Municipal Corporation. The omniscient Vishwaguru of WhatsApp nursery, please enrich your knowledge,” he said.

Congress spokesperson Prof Gaurav Vallabh said that Rahul was not talking about the Muslim League of Jinnah on whose mausoleum in Pakistan,Advani had hailed him and called him "secular".

"In the BJP's mind only that party is there. It is an old friendship as they formed the government in Bengal. Many prime ministers of India, many diplomats, writers, sportspersons, politicians have gone to Pakistan but who went to Jinnah's mausoleum," he said. (