Congress, BJP Clash Over Rahul Gandhi's 'Muslim League Is Secular' Remark

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is under fire from rival BJP for calling the Muslim League "completely secular" in a US event. While several BJP leaders slammed his remark as "saddening" and "very unfortunate", Congress leaders hit back saying the ruling party was confusing Mohammad Ali Jinnah's All India Mulsim League with the Kerala-based Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), which is in opposition in the southern state as part of the Congress-led alliance United Democratic Front (UDF).

Rahul Gandhi, during an interaction with journalists at the National Press Club in Washington DC on Thursday, claimed that the 'Muslim League is a "completely secular party".

Responding to a question on the Congress's alliance with IUML in Kerala, Mr Gandhi said, "Muslim League is a completely secular party, there is nothing non-secular about them. I think the person (reporter) hasn't studied the Muslim League."

Taking a shot at the BJP, Congress said the IUML was different from Jinnah's Muslim League, which the BJP has "more love" for and whose leader Muhammad Ali Jinnah was hailed by former top BJP leader LK Advani.

The Opposition party also said that it would like to remind the BJP that Hindu Mahasabha president Syama Prasad Mookerjee aligned with Jinnah's Muslim League to form the government in Bengal during British rule.

In a tweet, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, "Shyama Prasad Mookerjee was in league with the Muslim League in the government in Bengal when (Mahatma) Gandhiji launched Quit India movement. SPM was singularly responsible for the partition of Bengal." He also tagged a tweet by Congress leader Amitabh Dubey who had slammed BJP IT department head Amit Malviya for his criticism of Rahul Gandhi, saying "You're confusing the Kerala-based IUML he is talking about with Jinnah's Muslim League that took Savarkar's two-nation theory to its logical conclusion."

"The same Muslim League with whom BJP founder SP Mukherjee and Hindu Mahasabha formed coalition governments in Bengal, Sind, NWFP (North-West Frontier Province)," Mr Dubey said.

Calling Mr Gandhi's statement "extremely unfortunate", Union Minister and BJP leader Kiren Rijiju said, "Jinnah's Muslim League is a secular party? The party responsible for India's partition on religious lines is a secular party Extremely unfortunate that some people in India still consider the person who supports the Muslim League as Secular!"

Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak termed Mr Gandhi's statement "very saddening". "People of India will never accept the insult of the nation on foreign soil," he added.

Amit Malaviya, the BJP's spokesperson and IT cell head, said it was the Congress leader's compulsion to remain acceptable in Wayanad which made him call the Muslim League a "secular party".

Calling Mr Malaviya "illiterate", Congress leader Pawan Khera said that Jinnah's Muslim League is what "your forefathers allied with", and pointed out the other was the Muslim League with which the BJP too had an alliance in Nagpur.

Quoting Malviya's tweet, Mr Khera cited a news report from over 10 years ago that said the BJP had inducted IUML to retain power in the Nagpur Municipal Corporation in 2012.

Supriya Shrinate, the chairperson of Congress's social media and digital platforms, shared Mr Malviya's tweet asking him to brace up for some more sleep-deprived days ahead tracking Gandhi's US trip. "You got a sad life man," she taunted the BJP IT Cell chief.

Mr Khera has also said Muhammad Ismail, the founder of the Indian Union Muslim League, was a member of the Constituent Assembly and during the war with China, he had offered his son, Miyan Khan, to join the Indian Army.

He said the NDA government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee had sent IUML leader E Ahamed to Geneva to represent India. "IUML established the largest Sanskrit University in Kerala. The BJP also made an alliance with IUML for Nagpur Municipal Corporation. The omniscient Vishwaguru of WhatsApp nursery, please enrich your knowledge," Pawan Khera said in a tweet in Hindi.