New Delhi, Feb 7 (IANS) Bharatiya Janata Party national spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Sudhanshu Trivedi on Saturday launched a sharp attack on the Congress party, accusing it of evolving into a "Jamaati Congress" through alliances with communal organisations, potentially endangering national unity and democratic values.
Also, while addressing the media at the BJP headquarters here, Trivedi criticised the West Bengal government's budget for prioritising "Maulvis, Muezzins, and Madrasas" over the Trinamool Congress's own slogan of "Maa, Maati, Manush."
He claimed this reflected the INDI alliance's relentless pursuit of appeasement politics, setting new lows in divisive strategies.
Trivedi highlighted recent remarks by Congress leader and Kerala Assembly Opposition Leader VD Satheesan, who expressed no objection to seeking support from Jamaat-e-Islami.
He noted that Congress in Kerala is already allied with the Indian Union Muslim League, an outfit Trivedi linked directly to Muhammad Ali Jinnah's pre-Partition Muslim League.
He pointed out that key figures like PK Pokker Sahib Bahadur and Mohammad Ismail, associated with Jinnah's Madras Presidency unit, founded the modern entity, where Jinnah was hailed as "Quaid-e-Azam" and Ismail as "Quaid-e-Millat."
Echoing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's earlier description of Congress as a "Muslim League-Maoist party," Trivedi argued the party has now transcended even that, embracing Jamaat-e-Islami—a group he described as propagating an ideology to transform India into an Islamic state.
"While the Muslim League was at least a political party, Jamaat is a communal organisation," he emphasised.
He cited past instances, including Congress's alliance with Pirzada Abbas Siddiqui's Indian Secular Front during West Bengal Assembly elections and Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy's controversial statement equating Congress's strength with Muslims.
In Kerala, Trivedi said, this has escalated to implying that Jamaat's power bolsters Congress, questioning what "consequences" Keralites might face in return for such support.
Trivedi connected this to Rahul Gandhi's decision to contest from Kerala and his overseas defence of the Muslim League as "completely secular."
He also referenced a 2023 claim by a Social Democratic Party of India general secretary in Karnataka about an "understanding" with the banned Popular Front of India in 2018, underscoring patterns of "divisive appeasement" that have reached the extremes of minorityism, posing a major challenge to Kerala.
Warning of long-term risks, Trivedi drew parallels with Bangladesh, where the Bangladesh Nationalist Party's 2001 alliance with Jamaat-e-Islami legitimised it but later turned it into the BNP's biggest adversary.
He urged Congress to heed this lesson to avoid similar pitfalls. Quoting Rajya Sabha Leader of the House and former BJP president Jagat Prakash Nadda, Trivedi cautioned against becoming "hostages to the intellect of an immature child," calling on Keralites to unite to prevent the state from plunging into crisis.
