‘I love all living beings’: Rahul Gandhi responds to BJP’s question if Congress is for Muslim men
The BJP said the tweet was a ‘clear confession’ that the Congress was a party for the Muslims, as it had no denial of Gandhi’s alleged remark.
Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday responded to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s criticism that the party stood only for Muslims.
“I stand with the last person in the line,” Gandhi tweeted on Tuesday. “The exploited, marginalised and the persecuted. Their religion, caste or beliefs matter little to me. I seek out those in pain and embrace them. I erase hatred and fear. I love all living beings. I am the Congress.”
The tweet came days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi cited a report in an Urdu daily to quote Gandhi that Congress is a party only for Muslims. Other BJP leaders, including Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, have attacked Gandhi for his comments allegedly made at the Congress party’s outreach programme on July 11.
Soon after the tweet, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra held a press conference, and said he could not find any denial in the post, and so it was a “clear confession” that Gandhi had indeed made the remark. “We read the tweet many times in the last few hours, but could not see a negation of what Rahul Gandhi had said,” Patra said. “Through his tweet, he has admitted that he said that Congress is a party for Muslims.”
I stand with the last person in the line. The exploited, marginalised and the persecuted. Their religion, caste or beliefs matter little to me.
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) July 17, 2018
I seek out those in pain and embrace them. I erase hatred and fear.
I love all living beings.
I am the Congress.
According to AltNews, the Urdu newspaper Inquilab reported Gandhi as having said at a meeting: “If BJP says that Congress is a party of Muslims, it is fine. Congress is a party of Muslims, because Muslims are weak and Congress always stands with the weak.”
Several Bharatiya Janata Party politicians used the Inquilab report to claim that Congress is an “anti-Hindu” party that aims to “appease minorities”.
Modi had used the report to criticise the position that the Opposition parties had taken on the matter of triple talaq, and asked if the Congress was a party for only Muslim men. On Sunday, the Congress attacked Modi for his criticism, alleging that he was spreading the “poison of hatred and division” sensing defeat in the 2019 General Elections.
Meanwhile, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi said on Tuesday that the statements by Modi and Gandhi showed that the use of the word “Muslim” will lead to polarisation, ANI reported. “Is it a dirty word?” he asked.