New Delhi, Oct 6 : Hitting out at the Congress, Union Minister Kiren Rijiju accused the grand old party of dividing the Hindus, and appeasing the Muslims. During an exclusive interaction with IANS, the Parliamentary Affairs Minister said that the Congress uses Muslims as a vote bank.

"During elections, the Congress says its 15 per cent vote share (in reference to the Muslim support) is reserved. This reflects the mindset of the party. It's quite well known that the Congress views Muslims as its vote bank... that's a huge loss for the Muslims," the Union Minister said.

"The Congress believes that Muslims will always vote for it. How can the Muslim community develop amid such a thought process?" Rijiju wondered.

The Union Minister said a significant part of the Congress' planning has been to keep Muslims as its vote bank while dividing the Hindus. "And that is why, Rahul Gandhi has been stressing a lot on words like SC, ST, OBC etc.," he said, slamming the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha.

"Rahul Gandhi does not even know the ABCD about the problems and issues faced by the people belonging to the SC, ST and OBCs. Yet, he keeps talking about SC, ST and OBCs all the time. He has been taught to speak like that (by latching on to the subject of SC, ST and OBCs)," the Minister of Minority Affairs said.

"Muslims have already been made a vote bank, and now attempts are being made to collect votes by dividing Hindus on the lines of SC, ST and OBCs. The country would not make any gains from that," Rijiju told IANS.

The Union Minister further said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already started working towards making the country a developed one.

"And to create impediments in this particular initiative by PM Modi, Congress has adopted the policy of divide and rule. The British in the past had divided the Hindus, and now, the Congress once again has been trying to create divisions among the Hindus. The country will face a massive loss from that. We need to stay united," Rijiju said.

"We also want to pose a question to the Muslim community -- till when will you remain puppets in the hands of Congress and dance to its tunes? PM Modi has worked for each and every section of society. Everybody is benefiting from the schemes of the government," the Union Minister said.

Asserting that the Congress is trying to break the country into parts, Rijiju said the British ruled India in the past by adopting the policy of divide and rule, and made the country poor, claiming that the Congress has kept the Muslim and Buddhist communities backward.

Rijiju concluded by saying: "I want to appeal to every section of society to not get influenced by the Congress. Voting for Congress will prove to be a big mistake."

/IANS