Congress criticizes BJP's 'anti-national' label use after minister's slur on Colonel Qureshi, citing historical contradictions.

Congress leader Rakesh Sinha criticized BJP’s Raghubar Das for branding opponents “anti-national,” citing insults to Colonel Sofia Qureshi and pointing to the RSS’s past refusal to hoist the Indian flag. His remarks came after a viral video showed Madhya Pradesh minister Kunwar Vijay making derogatory comments about Qureshi, for which he later apologized. Sinha also invoked figures like V.D. Savarkar to question current definitions of nationalism. Das, meanwhile, framed Bihar’s upcoming assembly elections as a contest between nationalist and anti-national forces, predicting voters would side with nationalists. The elections, expected in October or November but not yet formally announced, will see the NDA (BJP, JD(U), LJP) face the INDIA bloc (RJD, Congress, Left) in a bid to unseat Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.