Ghulam Nabi Azad denies comparing RSS to ISIS, says comments 'misinterpreted'

Azad during a speech, compared the Hindutva outfit RSS with terrorist organisation ISIS.

The Bhartiya Janata Party on Monday demanded an apology from Congress in Parliament over the controversial remarks made by Ghulam Nabi Azad comparing Hindutva outfit RSS with terror organisation ISIS.

According to party sources, members will raise the issue and seek Azad's apology as comparison of RSS with a violent organisation like ISIS was \"unacceptable\" to them.

Azad had earlier kicked a row by seeking to draw a parallel between RSS and ISIS. \"So, we oppose organisations like ISIS, the way we oppose RSS. If those among us in Islam too do wrong things, they are no way less than RSS,\" he had said at an event organised by Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind.

Here are the latest updates:

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.

According to RSS RSS ideologue Rakesh Sinha, “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.”

“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.