After Mani Shankar Aiyar and Salman Khursheed, yet another senior Congress leader, party general secretary Shakeel Ahmad on Wednesday stoked a controversy with his comments on the Government’s alleged skewed view on minorities, prompting the BJP to come out strongly against them and calling his utterances as “highly communal”.
BJP demanded an apology from Congress President Sonia and action by her party against Aiyar and Khursheed for their “anti-national remarks”.
Shakeel on Wednesday tweeted, “Thankfully Chhota Rajan & Anup Chetia (UlFA) are not Muslims. Had they been Muslims Modi Government would have a different narrative altogether.”
Union Ministers M Venkaiah Naidu and Prakash Javadekar, hit out at Khursheed for criticising the NDA Government for adopting a tough stand towards Pakistan, saying the Congress should take strong action against the two leaders for their “seditious” and “anti-national” remarks. “The comments made by Aiyar and Khursheed are highly objectionable and anti-national. Going to a foreign country and calling upon the people to overthrow a democratically elected PM is nothing but sedition, Naidu said.
The Minister said the remarks by Congress leaders are “disgusting” for any patriotic and nationalist Indian.“Aiyar’s attempt is clearly aimed at de-stabilising the democratically elected Government led by Shri Modi. To say so on a foreign soil is even worse and amounts to clear act of treason,” he said in a statement later. Javadekar wondered if the Opposition party approved of their remarks and demanded Gandhi’s apology.
During a panel discussion on a Pakistani news channel, Aiyar said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi needs to be removed if talks between the two nations have to resume.
Khursheed had criticised the NDA Government for adopting a tough stand towards Pakistan.
Countering Congress’ criticism of its handling of Kashmir issue and Pakistan, Naidu asked, “If it is so simple for the Congress, they should explain to the people in the last 50 years why they have not resolved the Kashmir issue through peace dialogue.
Javadekar termed as “highly communal” the comments of Ahmed in which he had allegedly linked action against Chhota Rajan and Anup Chetia to their religion. “Congress looks for religion in every possible action, even in crimes. This is their policy,” he said.
BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra also said Ahmad made a “very appalling and shameless comment” and tried to discriminate among even terrorists on religious lines.