BJP questions Rahul's silence on 'Muslim party' remark

New Delhi, July 15: A combative BJP on Sunday questioned Rahul Gandhi's "silence" over his reported remarks that the Congress is "a Muslim party", saying it has no place for Muslim women.

The BJP also hit back at the Congress for alleging that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a "sick" mentality after he accused the opposition party of standing only for Muslim men.

Senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said, “The shameful allegations made by the Congress leader against the prime minister only showed their desperation."

He said that Gandhi has not yet given his party's support to the government's initiatives on instant triple talaq, despite the Supreme Court banning the practice. Taking on the Gandhi scion over his reported remarks in an Urdu daily that the Congress is a Muslims party, Prasad said he is now "patronising" the minority community.

“When Rahul Gandhi goes to Gujarat for elections, he becomes a janeudhari (one who wears the sacred thread) and flaunts his Brahmin lineage. He does the same in Karnataka. Now when the elections are over, he starts patronising the Muslims," he said.

"The issue is why Rahul Gandhi is maintaining conspicuous silence. Why he is not speaking,” Prasad asked.

He said that Gandhi in the presence of then prime minister Manmohan Singh at a lunch hosted for Hillary Clinton had alleged that "saffron terrorism and extremism" is more dangerous than the Lashkar-e-Taiba. This is a matter of record, he said.

"It is strange that whenever Rahul Gandhi is cornered, his party invokes his family legacy which is absolutely meaningless," he said, adding that the Congress president has to explain his own conduct.

PTI