Blood of Muslims on Cong hands: Khurshid

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 24

The Congress was left red-faced on Tuesday with senior party leader and former Union minister Salman Khurshid saying the party had Muslims’ blood on its hands.

The party was quick to distance itself from the remarks, saying Khurshid’s views were personal, even as the party leader later tweeted that the media had distorted his statement.

“The Congress disagrees with his statement...It is his personal view, not the party’s,” Congress spokesperson PL Punia said.

Speaking at an event at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), Khurshid admitted to Congress’ lapses during communal riots under its rule. He was responding to a query by a student as to how the Congress would wash off the “blood stains” of Muslims from its hands.

“It is a political question. There is blood on our hands. I am also a part of the Congress so let me say it, we have blood on our hands. Is this why you are trying to tell us that if someone attacks you, we must not come forward to protect you,” Khurshid asked. His remarks went viral on the social media, raising a storm.

The BJP latched onto Khurshid’s remarks with Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi raking up a number of riots, including the  Bhiwandi, Bhagalpur and Malegaon riots besides the 1984 anti-Sikhs riots.

“What Khurshid  said was an acknowledgement of the Congress’ history of “engineering communal riots,” he said. Alleging the Congress  wore a mask of secularism but practised communalism, he asked the party to come clean on the matter.