New Delhi: Attacking Congress president Rahul Gandhi for “belittling” and “insulting” India in his address at an event in Germany, the BJP on Thursday sought the Congress chief’s apology for his comments on a range of issues, which the ruling party alleged had presented India in a bad light.
Reacting sharply to Mr Gandhi’s ISIS analogy, the BJP said the Congress leader had not only justified the terror outfit but also denigrated the minority community.
Mr Gandhi had addressed a gathering at Bucerius Summer School in Hamburg, Germany, on Wednesday, where he cited the example of the Islamic State terrorist group to say that the exclusion of a large number of people from the development process could lead to the creation of insurgent groups anywhere in the world.
He said the BJP government had excluded tribals, dalits and the minorities from the development narrative, and “this could be a dangerous thing”.
“If you do not give people a vision in the 21st century, somebody else will. And that is the real risk of excluding a large number of people from the development process,” Mr Gandhi said.
He also linked incidents of lynching in India to joblessness and lack of opportunities for the poor. Hitting back at the Congress president, BJP spokesman Sambit Patra said Mr Gandhi “left no opportunity to belittle India and present it in a bad light”, and that his speech was “full of lies and deception, and its sole aim was to insult India”.
Taking a dig at Mr Gandhi, the BJP leader said: “Rahul Gandhi has behaved like Rahul Gandhi, and expecting any maturity from him is a futile exercise.”
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