Venkaiah Naidu targets Congress over Rushdie

Hyderabad: A day after controversial author Salman Rushdie hit out at Congress and Rahul Gandhi, senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu said on Sunday that the 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 in Hyderabad.

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 on Saturday.

Venkaiah even took a dig at the Congress and the SP, saying that the latter was supporting the former at the Centre.

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 the 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 even accused Samajwadi Party of failing to deliver when at the helm of state affairs.

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