Congress Attacks Rijiju For Condemning Anti-National Slogans, Says He Is Mixing Patriotism With “Hatriotism”

Lashing out at Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju who claimed that anyone who wants to break India and supports terrorists can be called an anti-national, the Congress Party on Monday said the former should not mix patriotism with "hatriotism" and must examine the fact that he is not confined to any particular party.

Congress leader Tom Vadakkan told ANI that Rijiju must understand that he must go beyond his scope of his party before making such comments.

"The honorable Minister of State for Home must not mix patriotism with "hatriotism". Patriotism doesn't mix with hate and the word that we have coined is "hatriotism". So we plead to the honorable Minister that he should stop this kind of activity and such statements which are harmful to the state," he said.

Echoing similar sentiments, another Congress leader P C Chacko told ANI that it is Rijiju and his party that is mainly responsible for breaking the country.

Rijiju has said that nobody has the "absolute right" to define nationalism but anyone who wants to break India and supports terrorists can be called an "anti-national". He also said under the guise of freedom of expression even some students "fantasize" about "breaking" India.

"Nobody has the absolute right to define nationalism but anybody who wants to break India, supports Afzal Guru and terrorists is anti-national," he said in a tweet.

The remarks came amidst the ongoing row over the clashes between the Left-affiliated AISA and the RSS-backed ABVP in Delhi University's North Campus.

With inputs from ANI