Congress practised politics of hate, communalism longest: BJP

Hitting back at Congress President Rahul Gandhi, who said India is witnessing a rise in the forces of hatred and division, the BJP on Tuesday said it is the Congress party that is guilty of hate and communal politics "for the longest time".

"Rahul Gandhi accused us of spreading hate and terror, besides a few other things that are normally not said at international forums. We want to ask if the Congress party's stand on triple talaq bill in Rajya Sabha was politics of hate or not," Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesman and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said here.

Accusing the Congress of having "double standards", Prasad said: "For the longest time, the politics of hate and communalism has been practised by the Congress. From Shah Bano to Shayara Bano, the Congress has not changed its attitude in 31 years... It has not come out of the clutches of fundamentalists, not even on question of women's dignity."

He also said that before praising China in India's comparison, Gandhi should have seen a report in "The Economist" magazine's December issue, "which predicts that India would overtake China in growth in two years".

Addressing the Indian diaspora in Bahrain on Tuesday, Rahul Gandhi had said: "Tragically, the conversation in our country today is not about jobs, healthcare or education. The only thing India talks about is what you are allowed to eat, who is allowed to protest and what we can say, or rather what we cannot say."

He added that the "tragedy" was that instead of focusing on critical issues like poverty alleviation, job creation and building a world-class education system, "we see instead rise in the forces of hatred and division".

--IANS

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