In what could fuel yet another controversy, Congress general secretary Shakeel Ahmad on Friday drew a parallel between the BJP and Pakistan’s ISI saying both “rejoice” whenever communal riots erupt in India. The party also dismissed BJP’s criticism of party’s vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s speech as “childish” and accused RSS and BJP of sponsoring “ideological terrorism” in the country.
“Whenever there is a riot in India, Pakistan’s ISI is happy....It gets huge money from Islamic countries in the name of protecting Muslims of India. While it gets money, BJP gets votes due to riots... BJP benefits from communal disturbances by engineering riots. It reached the figure 182 seats in lok Sabha from its earlier position of only two seats by doing so,” Ahmad said on his Twitter handle.
Ahmad’s comments came a day after Rahul Gandhi’s claim that Pakistan’s ISI was approaching some victims of the Muzaffarnagar riots to lure them into terrorism.
Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Soorjewala said that Gandhi in fact acted as a responsible political leader in speaking the truth. “Going beyond politics, Gandhi forewarned the youths and the countrymen. What he has said is a fact that is known by the whole country that when the house is put on fire by insiders, the outsiders will try to benefit from it. When there will be communal tension in the country, outside forces inimical to India will try to take advantage,” Soorjewala said talking to the reporters.
On queries as to Rahul was briefed in what capacity, Soorjewala said even he used to get such briefings by various intelligence officers when he was in the opposition.
External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid accused BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi of lowering the level of political discourse by attacking Gandhi’s remarks. “It was a wakeup call and the attack on a statement made with care and concern is totally unacceptable. I feel a tremendous sense of dismay and distress that a public announcement made with sensitivity and seriousness expressed by way of a concern should be treated by BJP this way,” Khurshid told a private television channel.