Taking a swipe at the Congress’s decision to skip Ayodhya Ram temple consecration ceremony on January 22, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the opposition party had made a historical blunder by adopting the image of being anti-Hindu.
In an exclusive interview with THE WEEK’s Chief Associate Editor Riyad Mathew and Delhi Deputy Chief of Bureau Namrata Biji Ahuja, Sarma alleged that the Congress party was trying to please certain Muslim fundamentalists of Kerala and other states.
“The political connotation would have changed the minute Sonia Gandhi went to the Ram temple on January 23rd morning. Indian politics would have changed not just for them, but for the entire country. They made a historical blunder to adopt the image of being anti-Hindu. In India you can be pro-Christian, pro-Muslim, but you cannot be anti-Hindu,” said the BJP leader.
Responding to a question on the allegations that the Ram temple event is being politicised, Sarma said only the absence of certain leaders would make it politicised.
“When the Pakistan government restored a Hindu temple, senior BJP leader L.K. Advani was invited. Can it be more communal than Pakistan? But Sonia Gandhi was asked not to go, [because of the threat that] there will be problems in Rahul winning Wayanad. Rahul went to Babur’s tomb in 2005, but he did not go to the Ram Temple. Doesn’t the Hindu feel hurt? You cannot become secular by being anti-Hindu. It does not work,” Sarma said.
- >>Read the full interview in the current issue of THE WEEK
