Facing questions from party colleagues, allies and political opponents for courting self-styled godman Dhirendra Shastri, former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and State Congress chief Kamal Nath on Tuesday said that there was no need to declare India as a Hindu Rashtra as the figures speak for themselves.
Mr. Shastri, who heads the Bageshwar Dham and has from public forums made the demand to make India a Hindu Rashtra or a Hindu nation, on Monday concluded a katha at Mr. Nath’s bastion of Chhindwara in which his son and MP Nakul Nath was the chief patron.
At a press conference in capital Bhopal a day later, Mr. Nath was asked about the demand of Hindu Rashtra gaining currency. “What is the point of making a Hindu nation, 82% are Hindus here. In a country where there is such a huge percentage, is it a matter of debate? What is the need to say Hindu nation, these figures state,” he said.
The Chhindwara katha is one in a long list of actions taken by Mr. Nath and his party to incorporate religious symbolism to counter BJP’s brand of Hindutva.
While differing views within the Congress on the event have emerged, former MP Shivanand Tiwari from the Rashtriya Janata Dal, a fellow constituent of the INDIA alliance, had earlier sought a clarification from the Congress central leadership on the event.
‘BJP’s star campaigner’
“Dhirendra Shastri is a declared supporter of Hindu Rashtra. Kamal Nathji went there and performed an aarti in his honour. Only when there was opposition from within the Congress did he ask why were people having problems over the issue,” Mr. Tiwari told journalists on Tuesday.
Earlier, Congress leader Acharya Pramod Krishnam had also questioned Mr. Nath rolling out the red carpet for “BJP’s star campaigner” who “ran bulldozers on the property of Muslims and flouted the Constitution by advocating Hindu Rashtra”.
M.P. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan also took a jibe at Mr. Nath, calling it chunavi bhakti or electoral devotion. “The public is watching the electoral devotion of the Congress,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
Reacting to the comments, Mr. Nath pointed out that he had built the biggest temple of Hindu deity Hanuman in Chhindwara 15 years ago.
Published - August 09, 2023 12:41 am IST
