Cong accepted two-nation theory for personal interest of one person: Goyal

Union minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday alleged that the Congress accepted the two-nation theory to divide India on religious lines for the personal interest of one person who was not willing to give up the post of prime minister, an apparent reference to Jawaharlal Nehru.

His remarks at the 'Lokmat National Conclave' here came while defending the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.

"In 1947, it was the Congress that divided the country into two parts. It partitioned India on the basis of religion. Our brothers and sisters were separated on the basis of religion," Goyal said.

"Be it Bangladesh or Pakistan, who laid the foundation of these two countries?" he asked.

The Congress accepted the two-nation theory for one person's benefit and Mahatma Gandhi was against this, the senior BJP leader said.

"But the Congress for one person's personal interest, because he was not willing to sacrifice the position of PM, partitioned the country on the basis of religion," he alleged.

The Bill seeks to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslims from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan escaping religious persecution. The opposition parties have come down hard on the government on the proposed legislation.

The Lok Sabha passed the bill on Monday. The Rajya Sabha is slated to take it up on Wednesday.

Goyal said the government was justified in bringing the Bill as minorities had been persecuted in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

"We have brought the citizenship amendment bill to make their life better. We are not saying we will not give citizenship to others," he said.

Talking of NRC, Goyal said "infiltrators" will be thrown out and refugees need not worry.

Referring to the Muslim community, he said they were being used as a vote bank and the "agenda of some people" was to keep them economically backward.

Stressing that citizenship would be provided to others as it used to be earlier, Goyal cited the example of musician Adnan Sami, a Pakistani who was given citizenship by India under the NDA government.

Asked about the Railways recording an operating ratio of 98.44% in 2017-18 which is the worst in the previous 10 years, the Railways Minister said the government is working to increase facilities such as WiFi at stations, safety, investment in infrastructure and also had to meet the demands of the 7th pay commission, which had increased its costs.

"Railway is a public utility... we will work on (bettering) it (operation ratio)," he said.

Goyal, who is also the Commerce Minister, said despite global challenges to the economy, the government was working to improve the situation. He expressed confidence that India was on the path of growth and has a bright future.

Talking about the RCEP, he said it was the Congress that had got India entangled in it, otherwise there was no need for the country to get into it.

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a mega free-trade agreement (FTA) which was negotiated by 16 countries, including India and China.

In November, India decided against joining the RCEP agreement as its concerns were not addressed in the pact.