Oppn reaction would have been different if comments were against Muslims: Assam CM on Sanatan row

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday dubbed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi as a 'chunavi Hindu' (Hindu for election purposes) and claimed the reaction of the opposition bloc I.N.D.I.A would have been different if remarks were made against another religion instead of Sanatan Dharma.

Recently, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leaders Udhayanidhi Stalin and A Raja had claimed Sanatan Dharma had sown divisions in society and must be eradicated on the lines of diseases like dengue, malaria and coronavirus.

Addressing the Bharatiya Janata Party's 'Jan Ashirwad Yatra' event in Narsinghpur district, Sarma said Sanatan Dharma has existed over the past 5,000 years because of the penance of several crore people.

"Sanatan Dharma will remain till the existence of Sun and Moon. Hindus are tolerant. The Congress and I.N.D.I.A bloc are terming it (anti-Sanatan Dharma statements) as freedom of expression. But if someone had commented about Muslims then he would have been expelled overnight by the Congress and its allies," Sarma claimed.

The BJP doesn't want anyone to speak against Muslims but they (opposition parties) must also not speak against Sanatan Dharma and Hindus, the Assam chief minister asserted.

"We respect all religions and believe in sarva dharma sambhaav (amity among all religions)," he said.

Mocking Rahul Gandhi, Sarma asked the gathering if they had seen the Congress leader visiting temples during the campaign for the 2018 Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls.

Terming Gandhi a 'chunavi Hindu', Sarma claimed the former did not visit temples after the Congress won the polls "because there was no devotion in his heart".

The Congress had formed government in 2018 under Kamal Nath but it fell in March 2020 after a rebellion by MLAs loyal to Jyotiraditya Scindia.

He also said he could not understand how the Congress could object to the Uniform Civil Code when the move was "for the larger good of society".

If asked whether the BJP was bigger or the nation, a BJP leader would always say it is the country but a Congressman would stutter if he is asked whether the country is bigger or the Gandhi family, Sarma claimed.

He also mocked the opposition bloc I.N.D.I.A and said someone would not become Mahatma Gandhi or Subhash Chandra Bose just because he shares their names.

Terming MP Congress president Kamal Nath as a "tired face", Sarma said the former chief minister was a duplicate Hanuman devotee.

Sarma claimed he was in the Congress for 22 years but never saw Nath showing 'Hanuman bhakti'.

Sarma said he had visited MP as a Congressman during the chief ministership of Digvijaya Singh and had seen only potholed roads, while the "state is now a developed one and no longer 'BIMARU' due to the rule of the Bharatiya Janata Party".

Earlier, talking to reporters in Jabalpur, he said the BJP doesn't have a monopoly over Hindus.

Sarma said Rahul Gandhi had an opportunity to tell the DMK leaders to take back their statements, adding that the Congress leader must do something for Hindus at least once in his life.

Gandhi would have become 'Hindu hriday samrat' (king of Hindu hearts) if he had got the Congress to snap ties with the DMK over the anti-Sanatan Dharma remarks, Sarma said.

Sarma also addressed a gathering in Katni district earlier in the day.