Congress creating 'partition' like situation: Sitharaman

Union Defence Minister on Friday accused the Congress party of playing the religion card.

While addressing a press conference here, Sitharaman asserted that such behaviour of the Congress will lead to division and communal disharmony which prevailed during the time of partition in 1947.

"Congress is playing a dangerous game. It's playing up the card of religion. It's frightening that it may lead to division and communal disharmony which prevailed during 1947 partition. Congress party shall be solely responsible if any disharmony plays out between now and 2019 polls," Sitharaman said.

This comes after the Congress on Thursday rubbished a newspaper report quoting Rahul Gandhi saying that it is a Muslim party.

Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the party does not discriminate on the grounds of religion and ethnicity.

"When governance fails, rumour rules! Congress is a party of 132 crore Indians, bereft of your faith-ethnicity-colour of one's skin-region-belief. For Congress is the foundational idea of India. No Bhakt will deter us from treading the path! Jai Hind," Surjewala tweeted.

On Thursday, a report in an Urdu daily emerged on social media accusing the grand old party of minority appeasement ahead of the upcoming 2019 general elections. The report comes just a day after Congress President Rahul Gandhi met a few Muslim intellectuals.

During the meeting, Rahul Gandhi was advised to do a self-introspection of the Congress party. He was urged to think about how "Congress worked in the era of 1970s when it talked about inclusiveness and 'Sajha virasat'".

However, nothing regarding upcoming elections and Personal Law Board for Muslim community were discussed in the meeting, said Iliash Malik.