BJP national general secretary and Karnataka in-charge Arun Singh on Tuesday demanded the Congress party to remove Yamakanamaradi MLA and KPCC working president Satish Jarkiholi for his recent remarks on the word “Hindu” as “vulgar”.
“If the Congress party does not take action against Jarkiholi and ask him to resign from his post, it would only mean that Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, D.K Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah endorse Jarkiholi’s insult of Hindus. Congress has always criticised the ancient culture and religion of our country. This is unpardonable,” said Singh, adding that the people would not forgive the Congress party and give a befitting reply in the upcoming Assembly elections in the state.
It may be recalled that Jarkiholi had stated that the word “Hindu” was derived from Persian and it's meaning was “vulgar”.
“The word ‘Hindu’ is not Indian and is Persian and it has a vulgar meaning. I don’t know why the word is being hyped so much. If you come to know the meaning of the word you will be embarrassed,” Jarkiholi claimed while addressing a meeting of the ‘Manava Bandutva Vedike’ at Nippani (Belagavi).
The ST Valmiki leader who is a compulsive rationalist and is moulding himself as a ‘Ahinda’ (Kannada acronym for minorities, backward classes and dalit) leader, in the same speech had contended that there was no caste system 2,000 years ago. “We were all one though we were engaged in different vocations. But we were divided. We need to reunite and for that, we need political power. We must reject those who believe in divide and rule policy,” Jarkiholi had said.
Even as the MLA defended his controversial remark, the Congress party is in a damage-control mode with AICC general secretary and Karnataka in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala calling it “unfortunate” and said the party condemned it “unequivocally”.
Surjewala tweeted saying, “Hinduism is a way of life and civilisational reality. Congress built our nation to respect every religion, belief and faith. This is the essence of India. The statement attributed to Satish Jarkiholi is deeply unfortunate and deserves to be rejected. We condemn it unequivocally.”
KPCC chief D.K. Shivakumar said that he would direct Jarkiholi to withdraw his statement. “It was wrong on his part to speak about Hinduism, which is the predominant religion in the country. I believe no one has the right to speak about Hindu religion,” said Shivakumar, who has been treading with caution as the BJP has been targeting the grand old party calling it “anti-Hindu” and also questioned its silence over issues like Hijab and Halal (meat) rows that rocked the state earlier this year.
The Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS) has condemned Jarkiholi’s statement
and demanded an unconditional apology from the former minister failing which the Samiti intends to hold a state-wide protest.
Mohan Gowda, the spokesperson of HJS, said “Hindu religion has a history of thousands of years. The Hindu civilisation, culture, religion and the word ‘Hindu’ have evolved from the Sindhu river. It finds mention in the Rigveda, Atharvaveda, ‘Nadi Sutras’, ‘Merutantra Grantha’ among other scriptures. The Supreme Court has ruled that the word Hindu implies a way of life. Our scriptures say that the one who gives up bad traits is a Hindu. We strongly condemn Satish Jarkiholi citing from wikipedia or taking references made by Muslims and Christians to define the word Hindu as vulgar. This reflects his state of mind and he must apologise. The Congress party should not seek the votes of Hindus and why is Rahul Gandhi touring the temples,?"