Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday accused the Congress of politicising the Ram Temple consecration ceremony and alleged that the party’s ongoing ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’, which started from Manipur on Sunday, espoused anti-Hindu sentiments.
“Congress’s yatra is an ideological one. They are anti-Hindu, and we are pro-Hindu. That’s the ideological conflict. I agree that it’s an ideological yatra, of espousing anti-Hinduism sentiments. We are pro-Hindu and pro all other communities. Today, the Gandhi family (and the Congress) is communal as they have declared themselves as anti-Hindu political party,” Sarma said while addressing a press conference in Guwahati.
Further, he accused the Congress of making the Ram Mandir inauguration a political event by boycotting it, and said, “If Congress had attended (Ram Mandir inauguration), we wouldn’t have got any political benefit. We asked you to be present so that it becomes an apolitical event, but you and your close associates have boycotted. Therefore, you have made it a political event, which it was not. If today Congress decides to go and sit in the front row, there will be no politics.”
Sarma called the Ram Mandir inauguration a triumph of the Indian civilisation.
“It’s a simple, religious function. Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, through their anti-Hindu thought processes, have made it a political event. People will go to the event, have darshan and come back. No one would give a political or anti-Congress speech on that day. So, its Congress who are making it a political event, not Vishwa Hindu Parishad or others associated with it,” Sarma said.
Sarma called it baseless the allegations by Congress that the state government was deliberately coinciding the dates of a welfare scheme with the Assam leg of Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra.
“It is the Congress which is coinciding (the yatra) with our welfare (scheme) dates. All our dates were declared even before we knew he (Rahul Gandhi) would come. Instead, I have cancelled my programme at Majuli and Jorhat on January 18 and 19 so that it doesn’t clash with Rahul Gandhi event. I can’t accommodate beyond that. We are very large-hearted,” he said.
Sarma said the application forms for the scheme will be delivered in panchayat offices and those who want to attend Rahul Gandhi’s event can collect them early in the morning.
“Aside from one community, others won’t attend Congress yatra. People feel ashamed to go to them,” Sarma said.
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