Swamy taunts 'mentally unbalanced' Ghulam Nabi Azad

Coming out all guns blazing on Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad for drawing a parallel between the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy on Sunday said that the former must be mentally unbalanced for saying something so ridiculous.

Speaking to ANI, Swamy said that instead of blaming RSS, Azad should worry about the brutal behaviour by the ISIS in the name of Islam.

"Ghulam Nabi Azad belongs to a mental asylum if you ask me or maybe he is saying this to please his patrons in Dubai. RSS was invited by Jawaharlal Nehru for the Republic Day parade. An RSS pracharak is the Prime Minister of India now and to say something like that is so hilariously stupid means that either he is mentally unbalanced or he is trying to please somebody who wants to run down the Hindus," he added.

Earlier today, the Centre also slammed Azad, saying that his stand indicated the Congress' support towards the terrorist outfit.

"This speech is exactly like the time when anti-national slogans were being chanted at the JNU and Rahul Gandhi went there to support them. This is the exact mindset, which was used to glorify terrorists. So, this statement shows the bankruptcy of secular politics," Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told ANI.

However, Congress leader Digvijay Singh came out in full support of Azad, saying the RSS and ISS are the two faces of the same coin.

"I totally endorse and support Ghulam Nabi Azad when he condemned ISIS as strongly as he condemned RSS. They are two faces of the same coin," Singh tweeted.

Azad had yesterday kicked a row after he sought to draw a parallel between the RSS and ISIS, evoking sharp responses from the Hindutva outfit and the BJP, which demanded an apology from him.

"So, we oppose organisations like ISIS, the way we oppose RSS. If those among us in Islam too do wrong things, they are no way less than RSS," the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha said at an event organised by Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind.

Meanwhile, the BJP is planning to give a calling attention notice against Azad in the Rajya Sabha.