Rahul Gandhi slams Modi over comments on dalits

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Wednes-day took on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his remarks that the BJP needs to bring dalits into its fold as nationalists were already with the party, wondering whether he did not consider dalits and backwards as nationalists.

“So now ‘Dalits’ and ‘Bac-kwards’ are not Nationa-lists Modiji ” he said on Twitter. Mr Gandhi was reacting to the PM’s rem-arks at the BJP core group meeting on Tuesday, where he said that without diluting the “nationalist” identity of the BJP, the party needs to work to woo dalits and backwards to its fold.

Meanwhile, AICC general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad accused the Modi government of “creating distances” among people in the country where attempts were being made to spread hatred of the kind witnessed during partition. Mr Azad, also the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, said the country was facing a “threat from inside”.

“When the Partition happened, the country was burning with hatred... Attempts are being made again to spread the same hatred today. Though the situation is not like the Partition, but some people are trying and conspiring to spread the same hatred,” he said at an event.