After finding himself in the midst of controversy after allegations that he called the Congress a “Muslim party” in the Urdu Daily Inquilaab, Rahul Gandhi responded in a tweet, giving the impression that it is an all-encompassing party.
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 the Congress.
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) July 17, 2018
BJP leader Sambit Patra in response to the tweet said, “Rahul, You may be standing in line with people at the end, but the people are not standing with you. They know the Congress ‘family rule’ did not do anything for them.”
Earlier, in the past week, both parties had spats after the Congress President had reportedly said that his party was a party of Muslims. The BJP had hit back to say the Congress was the “worst communal party”. Randeep Surjewala, the Congress leader had said BJP was the new version of the East India Company.
On Saturday, PM of India Narendra Modi had said at a public meeting in Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, “I read in the newspapers that naamdaar (entitled) said the Congress is a party of the Muslims. I am not surprised… When the previous prime minister was in charge, he said openly that the first use of natural resources should be with Muslims.”
At the meeting with Rahul Gandhi, Muslim intellectuals denied the comments that Inquilaab had attributed to the Congress President.
“I never used the term Muslim party. Rahul Gandhi said Congress is a party of Muslims. He said ‘haan, (yes), because Muslims are weakened, they have become another version of Dalits in the country’,” Inquilaab reporter Mumtaz Alam Rizwi stated, saying that the President’s comments were ‘nuanced’.
On Sunday, the Urdu Daily published another report saying that its version had been corrorborated by the Congress minority cell chief. The chief denied it.
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