"Had Congress banned Bajrang Dal 70 years ago..." Maulana Arshad Madani

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], May 21 : After much uproar over the Congress's promise to ban Bajrang Dal in its election manifesto ahead of the Karnataka elections, Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind president Maulana Arshad Madani on Sunday said that if the Congress had banned the right-wing organization 70 years ago, the country would not have been ruined.

"In its manifesto, the Congress party had talked about banning Bajrang Dal. If they had taken this decision 70 years back, the country would not have been ruined. When they said this, there was a hue and cry that Congress made a mistake by including it in its manifesto. I understood that it was not a mistake but it was being corrected," Madani said at an event here.

"If there was no anti-Muslim policy of Bajrang Dal, then the Popular Front of India (PFI) would not have emerged. PFI is not an action but a reaction," he added.

Congress faced a major backlash from Hindu organisations after it announced a ban on Bajrang Dal in its manifesto for the Karnataka assembly elections.

"We believe that law and Constitution are sacrosanct and cannot be violated by individuals and Organisations like Bajrang Dal, PFI or others promoting enmity or hatred, whether among majority or minority communities," read the Congress manifesto.

The Bajrang Bali row had taken centre stage during the election campaigns in the run-up to the Karnataka Assembly polls.

At a poll campaign rally, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had lashed out at the Congress and said that the people of Karnataka should punish those who promised to ban the Bajrang Dal and urged people to chant 'Jai Bajrangbali' when they went to cast their vote.