Congress leader AK Antony arrives for a meeting in New Delhi on Saturday
The Bharatiya Janata Party today took on the Congress for the comment made by its senior leader AK Antony about dipping secular credentials of the party.
At the concluding day of a workshop organised by the BJP for more than 155 first-time parliamentarians in Surajkund on the border between Delhi and Haryana, party patriarch LK Advani said, "We have always said that secularism should mean justice for all, appeasement of none and discrimination against none. I hope more and more Congress leaders endorse what Shri Antony has said, leading to a change in the Congress party's approach to secularism. As far as our party is concerned, there is already a perceptible change in the way minority communities have been looking at the Modi government."
At a party function on Friday, Mr Antony had said, "People have lost faith in the secular credentials of the party. They have a feeling that the Congress bats for a few communities, especially minorities."
"The success of the BJP has led to anxiety in the Congress. The way things are coming out shows us how anxious they are," BJP leader Prakash Javadekar said today.
Mr Antony's comment came at a time when Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi as well as his mother and party president Sonia Gandhi are facing criticism for lack of leadership skills by both Congressmen as well as party detractors. But senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh has defended Mr Gandhi.
"I have said he is always fighting injustice and therefore, he is not for power. He is to fight injustice. That is the different between us and him," he said on Saturday.
But this hasn't stopped BJP from criticising Congress. "We welcome the introspection within Congress, not only about secularism and all other failings, but the fact is that they are still arrogant. There are two crusaders in the country: Rahul Gandhi and Digvijaya Singh. If the Congress relies on them then we wish them well, there will be no loss for us," said BJP vice-president Mukthar Abbas Naqvi.