‘I am Congress’: Rahul slams BJP for ‘Muslim party’ remark

Our Bureau Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday reacted sharply to the BJP’s allegations that he had called his party a “Muslim party”.

Responding to the BJP’s jibes on this issue for the first time, Rahul said he does not care about caste or religion and loves “all living beings”.

“I stand with the last person in the line. The exploited, marginalised and the persecuted. Their religion, caste or beliefs matter little to me.

“I seek out those in pain and embrace them. I erase hatred and fear. I love all living beings. I am Congress,” declared Rahul, inviting a flood of responses on Twitter from all sides of the political spectrum.

The BJP deployed its spokesperson Sambit Patra to quickly assert that the Gandhis “don’t love living beings” but are power hungry.

“Rahulji, you love only one thing — you love power, the chair. You don’t love living beings. Just like India was Indira, Rahul is Congress. You (Rahul) have woken up way too late to Deen Dayal Upadhyay, who talked about the last man in the line.

“For so many years the Congress was not with the last man in the line. That is why the last man in the line is not with them any more. You have done politics of caste and appeasement. You have lived a farce in the name of politics,” said Patra.

The issue began with Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, on July 13, quoting Urdu newspaper Daily Inquilab to allege that Rahul had told some Muslim intellectuals in a meeting on July 11 that “Congress is a Muslim party”. She accused Rahul of creating a “dangerous situation” akin to the post-1947 violence where the whole nation was divided on communal lines.

While the Congress called the allegation “fiction” created by the BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi repeated the accusation on July 15, which was again stoutly denied by the Congress.

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