Venkaiah targets Congress over Rushdie

A day after controversial author Salman Rushdie hit out at Congress and Rahul Gandhi, senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu today said Congress was adopting a “selective approach” in this regard.

That was unfortunate…Congress and pseudo-secular parties were selective in their approach,” he told reporters
here.

Venkaiah was reacting to Rushdie’s comment that his presence at the Jaipur Literary Festival held in January was
blocked by “useless electoral calculations” and told Rahul Gandhi that “it did not work”.

Rushdie made the comment when he was speaking at the India Today Conclave in New Delhi yesterday.

Taking a dig Venkaiah said the relationship between Congress and Samajwadi Party (SP) came out in “open” post the
recently concluded Uttar Pradesh elections.

“Samajwadi Party is supporting Congress government in Centre…..Both SP and Congress are working together…It is
‘dosti’ in Centre and ‘kushti’ in state (Uttar Pradesh)..And now their relationship has come out in open,” Venkaiah said.

He was reacting to the AICC general secretary Digvijaya Singh’s statement that he had no objection to
Mulayam Singh Yadav-led party joining the UPA government.

Rahul Gandhi during campaigning for the Uttar Pradesh polls had accused Samajwadi Party of failing to deliver when
at the helm of state affairs.

————————–PTI