New Delhi: Stressing on the need to instill a sense of security and fearlessness among society, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi today called on all secular political parties to unite to take on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Rahul further accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) of dividing the country both on religious and caste lines.
"It is easy to divide the people but rather difficult to unite them," he said while addressing a gathering of leaders of different parties and Muslim groups here on the occasion of Eid Milan reception last night.
He said that a “division of the secular vote had helped the BJP to consolidate its political gains”.
"If we have to defeat communal forces, we need to get united," he said.
On Kashmir unrest, he said that the “gains made by the erstwhile UPA government in the border state have been nullified by the fatalistic policies of the NDA government.
“When Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister, he focused on Jammu and Kashmir and after years of toil we succeeded in restoring peace and normalcy in the militancy-hit state,” he said.
“Mishandling the situation in the Kashmir Valley had led to political turmoil,” he said.
The Congress leader further said that he voiced his concern to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley about growing unrest in the Kashmir Valley when he met him regarding the GST bill a few months ago. But Jaitley was "dismissive of my views and claimed that the situation is well under control. I kept mum after his observations".
When Manmohan Singh passed on the baton to Modi in May 2014, the situation in Jammu and Kashmir was quite normal, he said, adding that BJP leaders always used to state that the Congress did nothing for the country.
"Today I am asking them: Who brought peace in the troubled state? We got the trust of the people in the state due to our policies, which alienated militant groups," he said.
Rahul’s remarks came amid street protests following the death of a top militant which has left over 30 people, mainly the young, dead and scores injured in firing by security forces in the Kashmir Valley.
