‘Muslim League secular’: Rahul Gandhi; 'Compulsion to stay acceptable in Wayanad': BJP
As Malviya called Rahul Gandhi ‘poorly read, sinister and disingenuous’ for his Muslim League comment, Pawan Khera said, ‘Unpadh ho bhai?’
On a question on the Congress' alliance with the Muslim League in Kerala, Rahul Gandhi during his interaction at the National Press Club in Washington DC said there was nothing non-secular about Muslim League. "Muslim League is a completely secular party. There is nothing non-secular about Muslim League. I think the person (who sent the question) has not studied the Muslim League," Rahul Gandhi said as he was answering questions on several issues ranging from the Russia-Ukraine, India's China policy to the unity of the opposition in India. Read | 'If you sat Modiji down next to God': Rahul Gandhi in US; ‘BJP did Sengol thing as…’
The Indian Union Muslim League, a state party in Kerala, is a traditional ally of the Congress-led UDF in Kerala.
While Rahul Gandhi's statements in the US already stirred a storm, the Muslim League one drew condemnation from the BJP. BJP's Amit Malviya said it is Rahul Gandhi's compulsion to remain acceptable in Wayanad that he called Muslim League a 'secular party'. Rahul Gandhi represented Wayanad in the Lok Sabha before losing the membership following his conviction in the 2019 Modi surname case -- in March 2023. "Jinnah’s Muslim League, the party responsible for India’s partition, on religious lines, according to Rahul Gandhi is a ‘secular’ party. Rahul Gandhi, though poorly read, is simply being disingenuous and sinister here…It is also his compulsion to remain acceptable in Wayanad," Malviya tweeted.
Congress's Supriya Shrinate rebuffed Malviya and advised him to “brace up for some more sleep deficient days tracking Rahul Gandhi's US trip”.
“Are you uneducated? You do not know the difference between Jinnah's Muslim League and Kerala's Muslim League. Jinnah's Muslim League was the one with which your predecessors had an alliance and then there is another with which the BJP went into an alliance,” Congress leader Pawan Khera said referring to a 2012 report of the BJP taking two members of the Indian Union of Muslim League in the Nagpur Municipal Corporation polls.
‘Congress will surprise people in the next election’
Rahul Gandhi said he was not convinced by the idea that PM Modi will win the 2024 election. "It is not as simple as people make out. If you just do the maths, a united opposition will defeat the BJP without any electoral calculation," Rahul Gandhi said asserting that substantial work is being done to mobilise a united opposition, but it is a complicated space as in some areas, the Congress is fighting with some of the parties. "There is some give and take to be worked out," Rahul Gandhi said.
