Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad denies comparing RSS to Islamic State
After the BJP kicked up a furore in the Rajya Sabha, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley asked the Congress leader to introspect and told him he had given respectability to the terrorist group in his speech.
Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Monday said he did not compare the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh to the Islamic State and claimed that news reports alleging this had quoted him out of context. Azad was responding to the uproar the Bharatiya Janata Party caused in the Rajya Sabha over his comments.
"This is the CD of my speech. If anything wrong is found in it, you can move a privilege motion,” Azad said, according to The Times of India. On Sunday, Azad had said that he opposed the Islamic State the way he opposed organisations like the RSS. He had said he was “against the narrow fundamentalist mindset, whether it is of a Hindu, Sikh or Muslim.”
The BJP had immediately demanded an apology from the Congress. In the House on Monday, Finance Minister and senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley said, "I think you gave respectability to ISIS in your speech, you should have avoided that. Everyone knows IS is a terrorist organisation."
