Congress MP equates RSS with Muslim League

New Delhi, March 16: Days after Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad reportedly compared RSS with ISIS terror outfit, another Rajya Sabha MP Mohsina Kidwai on Thursday, March 17 equated the saffron organisation with Muslim League which had played a key role in the country's partition.

Participating in the debate on General Budget in Rajya Sabha, Kidwai asked the government to spell out its ideology as she attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying he seems to be "helpless" in stopping his ministers and party workers from making controversial comments.

"I think there is no difference between the ideology of Muslim League and the ideology of RSS. While the one triggered territorial division in the name of religion, the other wants to divide the nation in the name of religion," Kidwai said.

Pointing towards treasury benches, she said "Muslims do not need a certificate of patriotism from you. What kind of patriotism you practice in which you love the country but not those living in it? She also targeted the government over repeatedly invoking Mahatma Gandhi's name for its total sanitation drive saying, "Gandhi wanted a clean heart, which you do not possess."

Dismissing the government's promise of doubling the income of farmers by 2022, she asked "whether the Finance Minister has got some Aladin's lamp or some magic wand that he will double the farmers' income" and asked him not to "cheat" farmers.

The debate also saw some heated exchange of words between some members and Deputy Chairman P J Kurien, when they demanded more time to speak and Kurien reminded them that it were they, who had agreed to reduction of time for discussion.

Another Congress member Raj Babbar's remarks about Mangalsutra of HRD Minister Smriti Irani was resented by her, who wondered why "personal" things are being referred to.

However, Babbar said it has a link as he talked about the poor plight of labours in the jewellery industry.

PTI