Hyderabad: A day after Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s veiled attack on the BJP and RSS, Union minister M. Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday criticised the Congress leader, saying that one who expressed solidarity with extremists, fundamentalists and communalists had no right to preach about unity of the country.
Mr Naidu also lashed out at the Congress and said its politics of appeasement and vote bank had widened the divide between the majority and minority in the country. Holding the Congress responsible for complicating the Kashmir issue, he accused it of being hard on nationalists while going soft on terrorists.
On Saturday while addressing a function in New Delhi, Mr Rahul Gandhi had said that there were forces that were promoting disharmony and were seeking a divided and divisive India.
Mr Naidu on Sunday said that the Narendra Modi government was trying to bring social harmony and was focusing on oneness in nation. He said, “These remarks are like the pot calling the kettle black. It is the Cong-ress party, which has preached and practised divisive politics in the country for the last 50 years, and it has always encouraged fundamentalist forces and communal elements. It has thrived on politics of caste, region and religion.”
He added, “You have played vote bank politics, you never bothered to bring unity in the minds of the people, you have ruled the country for more than 50 years and ruined the country. How dare you criticise our ideology? You have no moral right to do that.” Mr Naidu said the Congress was responsible for the state of affairs right from the practice of untouchability, to social disharmony among people.
