'Rahul Gandhi called Congress a party of Muslims', says Urdu daily editor

The editor of the Urdu daily, Inquilab, which had quoted Rahul Gandhi as saying that the Congress was a party of Muslims, on Monday confirmed that the Congress president had indeed said such a thing. This comes at a time when the Congress is on defensive over Rahul's alleged remark and the party not taking a clear stand on whether the Congress president said it or not.

The BJP has been firing salvo after salvo over the matter and even accused the Congress of trying to divide the country on communal lines.

"Why is Congress being defensive and saying that Rahul Gandhi didn't say it (Congress is a Muslim party), he proudly said it. Congress' Nadim Javed who was present in meeting has already clarified on record that there was nothing wrong in our story," Inquilab's editor, Mumtaz Alam Rizvi, told ANI.

An Urdu newspaper published a report in which Rahul Gandhi was quoted as saying that the Congress was the party of Muslims, Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Saturday. She demanded from Rahul Gandhi that he would have to answer questions of the people of the country on this issue.

He had met with Muslim intellectuals on Thursday and had said lots of thing there, she said. He said that Muslims are the next Dalits in India, she added. Sitharaman said that what kind of politics the Congress was playing as it wanted to divide the country on communal lines.

BJP on Sunday questioned Rahul Gandhi's "silence" over his reported remarks that the Congress is "a Muslim party. 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.

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.