Union Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party Vice President Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Saturday reprimanded the Congress for defending Gujarat MP Ahmed Patel (pictured above) over his alleged links to terror organisation Islamic State, ANI reported.

“Congress must come clean now or else the blot on them will be larger than that for corruption,” Naqvi said. He added that instead of taking action, the party is busy accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party of politicising the matter. “This makes Ahmed Patel even more questionable.”

Naqvi’s comments come a day after Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani demanded Ahmed Patel’s resignation as Rajya Sabha MP, alleging that a suspected Islamic State member arrested recently used to work at a hospital that Patel used to “manage”.

Patel has rejected the allegations and demanded “strict and speedy action” against the suspected terrorists.

Patel, he added, should explain how 31-year-old Kasim Steamerwala – who was arrested by the Anti-Terrorism Squad of the Gujarat Police last Wednesday along with Ubed Mirza – came to be employed by the Sardar Patel Hospital in the town of Ankleshwar in Bharuch district. Steamerwala had resigned from his job earlier this month.

Naqvi also said that Congress will begin to be linked to terrorism instead of corruption if Rahul and Sonia Gandhi do not respond to this matter of “national security”, according to News18.

Meanwhile, former Union Minister and Congress leader P Chidambaram said he was “amazed by these kind of outrageous demands” for Patel’s resignation, according to ANI.

Chidambaram said that he had gathered some facts from friends and found out that Patel had resigned or retired as trustee of the hospital in 2015. “Now if somebody joins as a technician and then he is linked to ISIS, how is some trustee of 3 years ago responsible,” he asked.

The Janata Dal (United) faction led by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar also demanded an investigation into the allegations, according to IANS.