Urdu daily blames translation, not story, for Rahul's 'Muslim party' remark

On July 11, a delegation of ‘Muslim intellectuals’ met Congress President Rahul Gandhi at his residence in Delhi. According to advocate Z. K. Faizan, a member of the delegation, it was an informal meeting with no set agenda. “A day before the meeting, I received an invitation from Nadeem Javed, chairman of the All India Congress Committee’s minority department, to be present at the meeting,” said Faizan, talking to The Wire on the phone. “It was an informal meeting and lasted for about two hours. We discussed issues that were concerning Indian Muslims.”
The meeting has been described by the Bharatiya Janata Party as an example of the Congress’s “appeasement of minorities” politics with the BJP spokespersons including ministers making much of an account in the Urdu daily, Inquilab, which quoted Rahul Gandhi as saying, “Yes, the Congress is a party of Muslims”. Relying on this report, which the Congress has refuted, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also attacked the Congress at a rally in Uttar Pradesh last week.