Did not compare RSS to ISIS, speech misinterpreted: Ghulam Nabi Azad
New Delhi: "My comments have been misinterpreted," was senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad's repartee Monday to the BJP's claims that he compared Hindutva outfit RSS with terror organisation ISIS.
"I request BJP parliamentarians to go into a room to listen to this CD. This is the CD of my speech. If anything wrong is found in it, you can move privilege motion," said Azad, as he waved a CD in Parliament.
At an event organised by the Jamiat-Ulema-i-Hind last week, Azad had said: "We oppose organisations like ISIS, the way we oppose RSS. If those among us in Islam too do wrong, they are no way less than the RSS."
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley countered him in Parliament stating the senior Congress leader should introspect on what he had said. "You gave respectability to ISIS in your speech which you should not have as everyone knows ISIS is a terrorist organisation," said Jaitley.
Read: BJP, Cong MPs spar over Azad's remarks on RSS and ISIS
The Bhartiya Janata Party has demanded an apology from the Congress in Parliament over Azad’s remarks. BJP members sought Congress' apology as this comparison was "unacceptable" to them.
Here are the latest updates from Parliament today:
1.10 pm: Rajya Sabha adjourned till 2 pm.
11.44 am: Request Modi government to shut down 'fair and lovely' scheme and take decisive action in Lalit Modi and Mallya case: Congress
11.30 am: Unknowingly, Azad gave respectability to ISIS, says Arun Jaitley in Rajya Sabha.
11.20 am: Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad responded to government's allegations on his RSS-ISIS remarks saying his comments were misrepresented.
Azad said, “I request BJP parliamentarians to go into a room to listen to this CD. This is CD of my speech. If anything wrong is found in it, you can move privilege motion."
11.15 am: Congress party must apologise for statement made by Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad, said BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi in Rajya Sabha.
11.00 am: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi raises issues of crop damage due to hailstorm. "The government must act to give relief to affected farmers," said Rahul.
10.40 am: BJP demands Congress apology over Ghulam Nabi Azad's comment comparing RSS with ISIS.
10.30 am: Rahul Gandhi gives adjournment motion in Lok Sabha on crop damage issue due to hailstorm.
Earlier, on Sunday, RSS ideologue Rakesh Sinha lashed out at Congress for Azad's speech. “Mr Azad’s remark shows the intellectual bankruptcy of the Congress. Earlier too its leaders had hurled allegations at the RSS, blaming it for the Mumbai terror attack, then coining the term ‘Hindu terror’ and alleging that Sangh shakhas were promoting Hindu terrorism, and now (it has) compared the RSS with ISIS,” said Sinha.
"By such a statement, Mr Azad has provided logic and ground to the terror outfit to expand in India and also provided (it) with legitimacy and respectability when it is considered an enemy of humanity,” he added.
Claiming that the Congress leader had “crossed all limits” in his party’s bid to woo Muslims for its “votebank” politics, VHP leader Surendra Jain said Mr Azad had also insulted Muslims by his remarks “by questioning their patriotism”.
“Do they think Muslims in the country sympathise with ISIS? They have insulted Muslims of the country with their statement. Congress president Sonia Gandhi should apologise to the nation and try to save her party from imminent decline by throwing Azad out of the Congress,” Dr Jain said.
