New Delhi: Addressing students at Sciences Po university in Paris, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said “there is nothing Hindu about what the BJP does”.
A video of his speech, which he gave at the university Friday, was released by the Congress Sunday.
“I have read the Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads and other Hindu scriptures. And I can say that there is nothing Hindu about what the BJP does, there is absolutely nothing. I have not read anywhere, in no Hindu book, or heard from any learned Hindu person that you should terrorise, harm people who are weaker than you. So, this idea, this word, Hindu nationalists, this is a wrong word. They’re not Hindu nationalists. They have nothing to do with Hinduism. They are out to get power at any cost, and they will do anything to get power… They want dominance of a few people and that is what they are about. There is nothing Hindu about them,” Gandhi said.
The former Congress president’s attack on the ruling BJP comes at a time when New Delhi is hosting a number of world leaders for the G20 Summit. The Wayanad MP is on a week-long tour of Europe where he will be meeting politicians and members of the Indian diaspora in Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Norway.
The former Congress president, who is currently on a week-long Europe tour, made these remarks during an interaction with students at Science Po University in Paris, France.
Accusing the BJP-led central government and the right-wing organisation RSS of “trying to stop expression and participation” of the minorities in India, Gandhi added, “I am striving to not let that happen in the country.”
“It is a matter of shame for India to have minorities that feel uncomfortable in their own country. If there are 200 million people who feel uncomfortable in India, if people from the Sikh community feel so uncomfortable, women feel so uncomfortable, it is a matter of shame for us. That needs to be corrected,” Gandhi added.
When asked to comment on the India-Bharat row, Rahul said that he did not mind if the country was called India or Bharat, but stressed that the BJP’s intention behind the name change was rather out of irritation as the Opposition alliance was also named INDIA.
“India is defined as ‘India that is Bharat’, a union of states. The Indian Constitution uses both names (India and Bharat). Both words are perfectly fine. But we have perhaps irritated the (central) government with our coalition’s name. Our coalition’s name is INDIA. And that’s why they decided to change the name of the country,” Gandhi said.
