New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday called the ‘Indian Union of Muslim League' a secular party fuelling a war of words between the BJP and the grand old party. In an interaction with the journalists at the National Press Club in Washington, Gandhi was asked about his party's alliance with the Indian Union of Muslim League' in Kerala, to which he replied, “Muslim League is a completely secular party, there is nothing non-secular about them…
The remark drew considerable flak from the BJP leaders and its supporters.
Terming the statement ‘extremely unfortunate', Union Minister and BJP leader Kiren Rijiju said: “Jinnah's Muslim League is a secular party? The party responsible for India's partition on religious lines is a secular party Extremely unfortunate that some people in India still consider the person who supports the Muslim League as Secular!”
UP Deputy CM Brajesh Pathak termed Gandhi's “very saddening”. “People of India will never accept the insulting of nation on foreign soil,” he added. Echoing Rijiju's words, Amit Malaviya, the BJP's spokesperson and IT cell head, said it was the Congress leader's compulsion to remain acceptable in Wayanad which made him call the Muslim League a “secular party”. Congress leader however pointed out that Jinnah's Muslim League and the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) are two different parties. Quoting Malviya's tweet, Khera wrote: “Are you illiterate? Do you know the difference between Kerala Muslim League and Jinnah Muslim League? Jinnah's Muslim League is what your forefathers allied with. The other was the Muslim League with which the BJP had an alliance.” Like Khera, a number of Congress supporters have also cited news reports from over 10 years ago that said the BJP had inducted IUML to retain power in Nagpur Municipal Corporation in 2012. Calling Malviya a ‘fake news peddler', Supriya Shrinate, chairperson of Congress's social media and digital platforms, shared Malviya's tweet asking him to brace up for some more sleep-deprived days ahead tracking Gandhi's US trip. “Hey fake news peddler, Good to see you burning the midnight oil. But brace up for some more sleep deficient days tracking Rahul Gandhi's US trip. You got a sad life man!” she wrote.
