The “ideological ancestors” of the Bharatiya Janata Party had supported the British and the Muslim League against Indians in the freedom struggle, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge alleged on Monday, in a sharp reaction to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘imprints of Muslim League’ remark against the opposition party’s poll manifesto.
“Modi-Shah's political and ideological ancestors supported the British and the Muslim League against the Indians in the freedom struggle,” Kharge said in a post on X.
"Even today, they are invoking the Muslim League against the 'Congress Nyay Patra', guided and shaped according to the aspirations, needs and demands of common Indians," he added.
Addressing an election rally in Rajasthan’s Ajmer on April 6, Modi had claimed that the Lok Sabha polls manifesto of the Congress party bears an imprint of the Muslim League during the freedom movement.
“Every page of the manifesto reflects the mindset of breaking India into pieces,” he had said.
Kharge, in his post, accused the prime minister of spreading falsehood about the Congress manifesto. "Modi-Shah's ideological ancestors opposed Mahatma Gandhi's call for 'Quit India' in 1942, which was the movement chaired by Maulana Azad,” he said.
Everyone knows how Shyama Prasad Mukherjee formed his governments in Bengal, Sindh and the North-West Frontier Province in the 1940s in coalition with the Muslim League, the Congress chief said.
Earlier in the day, a Congress delegation met the Election Commission against the prime minister’s remarks against its manifesto.
The party claimed Modi is scared over the prospect of the BJP struggling to cross the 180-seat mark in the Lok Sabha polls and has again resorted to the "same cliched Hindu-Muslim script".
Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters in Delhi, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said the BJP is consistently losing ground, which is why "the PM's love for Muslim League has resurfaced".
She said the Congress manifesto is being widely discussed and is a blueprint for the future of the country.