Congress needs to stop believing that Indira is India, says Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi

Congress party has to "stop believing that Indira is India" in order to understand that there are no two Indias, Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said on Thursday.

Speaking in the Lok Sabha on the Motion of Thanks to the President, the Minority Affairs minister said, "We need to get out of the hangover of thinking that Indira is India and India is Indira and Congress is the country and the country is Congress."

Naqvi's remarks were in response to Congress MP Rahul Gandhi's statement that government policies have led to the creation of "two Indias".

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The former Congress president said that the central government's policies are unable to address the main challenges faced by the country, including the growing gap between the "extremely rich and the poor".

In his speech on Thursday, Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi also said that the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi "ended the rule of cuts, commissions, family politics, Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir, and brought the Citizenship Amendment Act to protect those persecuted for religious beliefs".

The "week of riots" and "months of terrorist blasts" have come to an end, he said, adding that India responded to provocations by the "neighbouring country" with surgical strikes "against its terrorist activities".

Naqvi also said that the central government has repealed 1,500 laws that were not needed since coming into power in 2014.

"The government took steps to make the Supreme Court's decision on Triple Talaq effective and brought forth a law to protect the rights of Muslim women," Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said.