Ghulam Nabi Azad says didn't compare RSS with ISIS

NEW DELHI: Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Monday denied comparing the RSS, the BJP 's parent outfit, with terror group ISIS and submitted as proof a recording of the speech that he says was quoted out of contest."This is the CD of my speech. If anything wrong is found in it, you can move a privilege motion," the Congress leader said about a speech he gave yesterday.Azad had in that speech said that both the RSS and ISIS attempt to divide communities."The fight is not about Hindu and Muslim. It is a fight of perspectives... We are against the narrow fundamentalist mindset, whether it is of a Hindu, Sikh or Muslim. We oppose and reject the forces that are destroying the Muslim nations. We protest against ISIS-type of forces in the same measure as we protest against oppose outfits like RSS," Azad had said.The BJP had demanded an apology from the Congress for comparing the RSS, its ideological parent, with an ourfit like the Islamic state.On Monday, his clarification was countered by finance minister Arun Jaitley , who said that the senior Congress leader's remarks were incorrect and that he should introspect."I think you gave respectability to ISIS in your speech, you should have avoided that. Everyone knows ISIS is a terrorist organization," Jaitley said in the Rajya Sabha.Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi raised the issue in Rajya Sabha and said Congress party must apologize for the statement made by Azad, the leader of the opposition.Naqvi said on Monday that Azad's comparison of RSS with ISIS was the "great old party's grand new secular formula."Azad countered with a comment about the BJP's alleged intolerance, when several ministers sought to drown out his response to Naqvi."Please behave like educated persons," Azad said, asking them to not bring to Parliament the "intolerance they show to criticism outside."Azad then read out his speech from yesterday and said he had spoken about all forms of fundamentalism that must be resisted."In the fight for secularism, you will find people from all sects and religions but not in fundamentalism," he said.Yesterday, the BJP and RSS were quick to slam Azad's comment, calling it a reflection of the Congress's "intellectual bankruptcy"."Azad's comments are a reflection of Congress's disabled mentality," said BJP spokesperson Shrikant Sharma, adding that it was a Congress ploy to divert attention from the Ishrat Jahan 'fake encounter' case in which fresh revelations have put a question mark on the erstwhile UPA government's intentions.