Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti's apology means 'nothing', should resign: Congress

SRINAGAR: Terming Union Minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti's remarks as an "abuse" to democracy and crores of people with secular mindset, Congress today demanded her resignation saying her apology meant "nothing".

"On one hand they (BJP) say 'sabka saath, sabka vikaas' but on the other one of their ministers Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti utters such sentences which, I feel, are an abuse. They are an abuse to democracy and to the crores of those people, from different religions, who have a secular mindset.

"Though she has apologised, we know that such an apology is nothing. She should feel ashamed and resign," Congress national spokesman Meem Afzal told reporters here.

Afzal said BJP was parroting the slogan of 'sabka saath, sabka vikaas', but there was a "huge difference" between what it says and what it does.

"Giriraj Singh (now a Union Minister) had said (before Lok Sabha elections) that those who do not vote for (the BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra) Modi, should be sent to Pakistan. Does that mean about 69 per cent of the people, who did not vote for Modi, should go to Pakistan? Same Singh has been made a minister by Modi. There is a huge difference in their talking and doing.

"It is not 'sabka saath, sabka vikaas'. The BJP wants 'sabka saath' but only their own vikaas (development) and which they are doing," he said.

The Congress leader said BJP wants to rule the country single-handedly and was actually talking about "democracy-free India" when it talked about freeing the country from Congress and various regional parties.