THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Questioning the Congress leadership’s stand on the party state unit “cosying up to” a radical Jamaat-e-Islami, the BJP termed it a political issue in the Nilambur by-election.
Party state president Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra — who is currently in Kerala to campaign for the UDF — is bound to respond to the “ties”.
In a Facebook post, Rajeev sought to know if it wasn’t sheer hypocrisy that Priyanka and her brother Rahul Gandhi uphold the Constitution in public while supporting the Jamaat, which has been dreaming of creating an Islamic state in the country.
“Isn’t it the height of hypocrisy to preach ‘mohabbat’, yet stand with those who mourned Ajmal Kasab, defended Afzal Guru, and hailed Hamas terrorists? Isn’t it an insult to your own senior leader, former CM Oommen Chandy, that you now go against his position calling Jamaat-e-Islami the most dangerous outfit?” he asked.
The BJP, which was late of the campaign in Nilambur, is now using Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan’s open ‘vindication’ of the Jamaat as one of its planks in the Hindu-dominated constituency with around 12-15% Christian votes.
By raising the Jamaat issue, the party may be seeking to build on what it sees as an advantage in naming a Christian candidate. Both the CPM and the BJP have questioned the Congress-Jamaat ‘ties’, especially after criticism from several Muslim organisations and the Catholic Congress.
Though there is an opinion in the Congress and among UDF partners that Satheesan should have taken a more cautious approach, the opposition leader has been quite adamant in calling the shots.