Rahul also said that there were suggestions by some party leaders of late to play the "Soft Hindutva" card but he rejected. (Photo: Twitter/@OfficeOfRG]
New Delhi: In a desperate attempt to expand the party’s outreach in the wake of continued debacles, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Monday reassured the leaders belonging to minority communities that the "Soft Hindutva" had never been the agenda of the party.
"Congress firmly believes in the secular ideas of Nehru, Gandhi and Azad. Soft Hindutva was never in the past and will never in future be the policy of the Congress party", Rahul Gandhi said while addressing the leaders of minorities, including a large number of Muslims, in New Delhi on Monday.
Rahul also said that there were suggestions by some party leaders of late to play the "Soft Hindutva" card but he rejected.
According to Mumbai based Urdu daily Inquilab, Rahul Gandhi accused the RSS and BJP of spreading hate against the weaker sections of the society.
"They are trying to create an atmosphere in the country wherein nobody could talk about the rights of the weaker sections especially the minorities", he said.
He said that against these challenges its duty of the party workers to reach out to the masses with the party's secular ideas.
"We will be at loss if we could not carry on the party's secular ideas to the masses", he said.
He said despite all efforts by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah to polarise the majority, they could get support from just 31 percent in the 2014 general elections.
"Even in the recently concluded Uttar Pradesh elections they could not increase their vote share. It shows that majority of people in the country are still behind secular ideas and reject divisive hate based politics", he said.
Rahul also accused the BJP of working for corporate sector.
“The BJP is in fact working for its corporate friends and to hide this fact from the country it plays communal hate politics”, he said.
Rahul Gandhi began his address with a clarification about Antony report which had reported to have blamed the “Congress policy of Muslim appeasement” as the reason behind the defeat of the party in the 2014 elections.
“This is not true. The Antony report just said that the BJP and RSS were successful in convincing people into believing that the Congress favors Muslims at the cost of interests of Hindus”, he said.
In a veiled attack on the Modi government’s decision to curb cattle trade and ban on beef, Rahul Gandhi said such decisions will weaken the country.
“The country will be weakened if one language, one culture, one food habit or one religion is imposed on the people”, he said.
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