Congress dismisses Madani`s statement

Congress dismissed Maulana Mehmood Madani`s controversial statement asking "so-called" secular parties not to invoke Narendra Modi bogey.

New Delhi: Congress on Tuesday dismissed prominent Muslim leader Maulana Mehmood Madani`s controversial statement asking "so-called" secular parties not to invoke Narendra Modi bogey to create fear among Muslim voters.

"We do not make strategy keeping in mind any individual. Our strategies are with regard to the policies and programmes of a party," party spokesman Meem Afzal told reporters. Afzal recalled that Madani had in the past hailed the Congress and its policies. He claimed that Madani`s statement amounts to insult of the community and wondered as to what was the reason behind the new found love between Madani and Modi. Madani, leader of prominent Islamic organisation Jamiat-i-Ulema-e-Hind, said the "so-called" secular parties should not seek votes in a "negative manner" but through "positive" campaign by speaking about their agenda and spelling out the promises they have fulfilled and promises that remain unfulfilled. "These so-called secular parties should explain what their governments in different states have done. What promises they have fulfilled and which ones still remain. They should seek votes on this basis and not on the basis of fear of somebody else (coming to power)," he told reporters. He did not specify but was clearly referring to the contention by some parties that emergence of Modi would polarise the country and be detrimental to the interests of Muslims.