Rahul dividing India, speaking for Pakistan, says BJP
Reacting to Rahul Gandhi's conversation with US ambassador Timothy Roemer that home-grown Hindu extremist groups are bigger threat to India than Muslim militants, BJP spokesman Tarun Vijay today said that Rahul is "dividing India again on communal lines".
Reacting to Rahul Gandhi's conversation with US ambassador Timothy Roemer that home-grown Hindu extremist groups are bigger threat to India than Muslim militants, BJP spokesman Tarun Vijay on Friday said that Rahul is "dividing India again on communal lines".
"He and Digvijay Singh are speaking the language of Pakistan and Kasab and helping Lashkar-e-Taiba. What Rahul is doing is going to make Pakistan happier," he told CNN-IBN.
"If he thinks if he speaks against Hindus Muslims will vote in UP it is most unfortunate for the country in future."
"I must say Rahul is trying to help Kasab to win votes in Uttar Pradesh and this should be properly replied."
"This is a strategy that Congress is using since independence by dividing Hindus and Muslims and creating a phobia of Hindu organisations before the Muslims to make them feel that Congress is the only ones who can help them," he added.
BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad also hit out at Rahul Gandhi calling his statement "irresponsible".
"BJP condemns the statement, which is irresponsible. If Rahul is worried about Hindu terror, he must speak in parliament...It shows how little he knows about India," Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters.
Prasad also questioned the purpose behind Rahul Gandhi speaking on the issue with an ambassador of a foreign country.
Gandhi last year told US Ambassador to India Timothy Roemer that "the growth of radicalised Hindu groups" may be a "bigger threat" to India than support to some Islamic terror groups from the Muslim community, according to diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks.
Gandhi told Roemer that although "there was evidence of some support for (Islamic terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba) among certain elements in India's indigenous Muslim community, the bigger threat may be the growth of radicalised Hindu groups, which create religious tensions and political confrontations with the Muslim community", the Guardian reported Friday.
BJP leader Prakash Javadekar said Gandhi's comment shows that he wants to identify terror with religion and is ignorant about Indian civilisation.
"Terror is terror, it must not be translated into vote bank politics. Terror should be investigated and guilty must be punished," he added.
(with IANS inputs)