New Delhi: The Congress on Monday alleged a "conspiracy by a sick mindset to divide society", implying that a remark by Rahul Gandhi that emphasised the party's inclusive politics had been distorted to suggest he had claimed "the Congress is a Muslim party".
Congress communications chief Randeep Surjewala's comments came as the BJP kept up a harangue on the subject for the fourth consecutive day, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ministers of defence, law and education, apart from BJP spokespersons, doing the honours.
"This is a planned conspiracy by a sick mindset to divide society. Let Prime Minister Narendra Modi spread as much hatred as he wants, the Congress is determined to confront the BJP's divisive agenda with full force," Surjewala said.
He argued that the Hindu-Muslim game was being played to divert attention from the government's failures.
"Modi is blinded by the lust for power. Religion is just a mask for them to grab power. As the Prime Minister cannot give an account of his achievements and work, he will do politics of religious polarisation till 2019," he said.
The Urdu daily Inquilab had last week reported that Rahul had described the Congress as a "Muslim party" at a meeting with Muslim opinion makers on Thursday.
The Congress denied this, and so did historian S. Irfan Habib, who had attended the event. But the BJP attacks, started by defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman, continued.
On Monday, Union minister Prakash Javadekar referred to a fresh report in Inquilab that quotes Congress minority cell chief Nadeem Javed, who is interpreted as confirming - if indirectly - that Rahul did make such a remark.
Nadeem is quoted saying: "Neither has Rahul said anything wrong, nor has Inquilab reported anything wrongly."
Rahul's comments at the event had come in an swer to a participant who had cautioned him that the Congress should not focus on issues that enable the BJP to brand it a Muslim party.
According to former Aligarh Muslim University president Z.K. Faizan, Rahul replied: "Yes, Congress is a party of Muslims, of Dalits, of OBCs, of weaker sections from all castes and religions."
Faizan said Rahul's words were edited and taken out of context.
As the controversy rages around the subject, Congress spokespersons have been insisting, without getting into specifics, that the party represents all sections of society irrespective of caste, region or religion.
"Did the Congress win 350-360 seats in successive elections (in the past) with around 45 to 50 per cent votes because it is a Muslim party? We are numbed by the level of discourse," a senior Congress politician told this newspaper.
One of the participants, Farah Naqvi, has written an article in response to the BJP charge, saying: "For the record, let's bury the cynical fake news about Rahul Gandhi or anyone else present having said at that meeting that the Congress is a 'Muslim party', even though it would be interesting to speculate if Sitharaman seriously believes that such a party would have any democratic future at all in a country where 86 per cent of the population are non-Muslims."
Another participant told The Telegraph on the condition of anonymity: "Rahul was very clear that neither did the Congress believe in discrimination along caste or religious lines, nor would it ignore discrimination by others.
"He did say he was not afraid of the Congress being branded a Muslim party for speaking out against injustice. What he meant was there should be no surrender to the abnormal pressures of majoritarianism, as practised by the RSS-BJP."
Habib too told several news channels that the statement was "fake" and that Rahul did not say the Congress was a Muslim party.
There has been considerable unease in the party over Nadeem's "irresponsible act" and he has been asked to avoid the media on this subject.
While Inquilab saw his comments as an endorsement of its earlier report, Nadeem tweeted that he had only reaffirmed that Rahul wanted to empower the weaker sections like Muslims and Dalits.
