Rahul Gandhi attacks BJP over 'Padmaavat' row, says saffron party setting country on fire

NEW DELHI: Congress wrote two scripts for the same plot on the day ‘Padmaavat’ was released. While party president Rahul Gandhi condemned the violence and alleged BJP was ‘using hatred and violence’ for politics, AICC general secretary Digvijaya Singh said films that hurt sentiments of people should not be produced.

Gandhi took care not to comment on the merit of the movie or feasibility of screening it, while Singh ensured his comment did not endorse violence.

“There will never be a cause big enough to justify violence against children. Violence and hatred are weapons of the weak. The BJP’s use of hatred and violence is setting our entire country on fire”, Gandhi tweeted.



Singh, on his Narmada Parikrama, told media persons at Raisen in Madhya Pradesh, “films that hurt sentiments of people of a particular religion or caste and not based on historical facts should not be made.”

Singh seems to be playing along sentiments of his community which can influence the outcome of MP polls later this year. When reporters asked Congress about Singh’s disapproval of the movie, AICC spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi said the party was focusing only on BJP governments’ ‘inaction’ in containing violence.

“CBFC under I&B ministry cleared the movie. Did I&B minister make efforts to take views of concerned sections and address them,” Chaturvedi asked. She said everybody was free to watch it or not watch it.

Congress leader P Chidambaram too targeted the BJP. “On the day PM invited world business to invest in India, Ahmedabad was hit by mob violence,” he tweeted. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, meanwhile, alleged forces that “killed Muslims and burnt Dalits” were “coming after our children.”

Speaking at a function in north Delhi's Chhatrasal Stadium he said, “we cannot afford to remain silent. They killed Muslims, burnt Dalits alive, thrashed them. Today, they have started pelting our children with stones, have started intruding into our homes. Don't remain silent now, speak up.”