Congress attacks BJP, RSS; compares them with ISI

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Press Trust of India New Delhi
Last Updated : Oct 25 2013 | 7:07 PM IST
Congress today accused RSS and BJP of sponsoring "ideological terrorism" and drew a parallel between the opposition party and Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI, saying both rejoice over communal riots in the country.
The party also dismissed as "childish" the BJP's criticism of Rahul Gandhi for his statement that Pakistan's ISI is trying to lure some Muslims in riot-hit Muzaffarnagar into terrorism.
"It was natural that enemies from outside will fish in troubled waters and will try to encash on communal tensions fanned by our own people here," party spokesperson Randeep Singh Soorjewala told reporters here.
"Rahul Gandhi acted as a responsible political leader in speaking the truth and forewarning people to beware of those seeking to divide communities. Going beyond politics, he forewarned the youths and the countrymen.
"What he has said is a fact that is known by the whole country that when the house is put on fire by insiders, the outsiders will try to benefit from it. When there will be communal tension in the country, outside forces inimical to India will try to take advantage," Soorjewala said.
He also rejected questions as to in what capacity an intelligence officer could brief Gandhi, who is not in the government, about such a sensitive issue saying even he used to get such briefings by various officers when he was in the opposition.
"Forces, which are dividing the country are also ideological. RSS and BJP engage in some sort of ideological terrorism, when they try to demolish the fabric of the country," he said.
Castigating BJP for "fuelling communal passion", party general secretary Shakeel Ahmed said that whenever communal riots happen in the country only two sets of people rejoice-- Pakistan's ISI and India's BJP.
"Whenever there is a riot in India, Pakistan's ISI is happy....It gets huge money from Islamic countries in the name of protecting Muslims of India. While it gets money, BJP gets votes due to riots... BJP benefits from communal disturbances by engineering riots. It reached the figure 182 seats in Lok Sabha from its earlier position of only two seats by doing so," he told PTI.
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First Published: Oct 25 2013 | 7:07 PM IST

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