New Delhi: Congress on Thursday dismissed BJP`s charge that Sonia Gandhi`s meeting with Shahi Imam of Delhi`s Jama Masjid Syed Ahmed Bukhari was communalising politics and insisted that the party chief has not violated the model code.
It also targeted Narendra Modi over his charges on "pink revolution" and sought to turn tables, saying Gujarat is in the forefront of exporting processed meat.
Party spokesman and Union Minister Anand Sharma told reporters here that Modi is deliberately raising the issue of meat export in order to polarise the electorate.
He has been also raking it up in constituencies having sizable population of Yadavs, those who rear cattle, in order to create a schism between communities, Sharma said.
"Modi has said it earlier also and being Commerce Minister in-charge of the issue, I have written to the Gujarat Chief Minister and dismissed his charges. He goes silent when the answer is given. There is no subsidy given by the Government of India for meat export. This is total lie. Only bovine meat is exported. Cow slaughter is banned in the country," he said.
The spokesman said that the meat that is exported goes from approved processing plants which are certified by the state governments. "My question to Modi is that even in Gujarat, there has been substantial increase in the export of meat. There are also abattoirs there."
Amid reports that the Election Commission will take cognisance if it receives a complaint against Gandhi`s meeting with Bukhari, he said, "We are a secular diverse country and to be secular does not mean we are atheists.
"The leaders of Congress as well as from other parties are free to meet Shankaracharya, saints, imams and dharma gurus. It does not mean doing communal politics. Hindu religion is not something given to RSS on contract."
"I don`t think so. We have every right to meet religious leaders", Sharma said, dismissing that there was any violation of the model code by Gandhi.
He wanted the Election Commission to issue a notice to Modi for making communal statements repeatedly.
Mocking BJP over its frequent projection of Modi as a strong and decisive leader, Sharma said that strength lay in knowledge and Modi knowledge of history and geography has been exposed.
"Do you want the Prime Minister of India to be a boxer or a heavyweight lifter?" he wondered, taking a dig at Modi`s "56-inch chest" claim.
Responding to questions about delay in release of BJP`s manifesto, he said if Gujarat Chief Minister is the chairman of the manifesto committee, the document will never come out as he only knows how to "plagiarise" the policies and programmes of Congress.
"Except the 56-inch-chest and the six kurta pyjamas he changes daily, Modi has outsourced everything else to others", he remarked.
He said the failure of BJP to come out with a manifesto even nine months after the announcement of Modi as the PM candidate showed how much "hollow" the opposition party was.
