Congress & BJP lock horns over Rahul Gandhi's comparison with Lord Ram
New Delhi: A day after linking the ongoing pan-India march of the Congress -- Bharat Jodo Yatra -- to the epic Ramayana, and party leader Rahul Gandhi to Lord Ram, former Union
minister Salman Khurshid on Tuesday said that it was a metaphor as our country has a culture to name children after Lord Ram with a thought that they would to do good work, walk the right path and also guide others to it.
Khurshid's praise of Rahul Gandhi as "superhuman" and a "yogi doing tapasya"
evoked sharp criticism from the BJP. Slamming the opposition party leaders for their show of "sycophancy", the BJP said that comparing a person out on bail in a corruption case to a God worshipped by so many people not only hurts the feelings of Hindus but also the entire society.
Reacting to it, the Congress leader said, "No one can replace God but everyone can try to walk the path shown by him. Why should anyone object if I say someone is following that path."
Khurshid further asked when we feel indebted to someone, why do we call them 'bhagwan (god)'? "Why do we tell them that you have come to my life to rid me of my troubles, like God himself?" he said while explaining his comments, which had drawn criticism from the BJP.
"Try to understand the Indian civilization, and I am clarifying with what emotion and intention I said those words. Be it Lord Ram, or any other revered figure, they are not a monopoly of anyone. Nobody here can claim that they are the sole authority on Hindu religion," Khurshid said, who is coordinator of the yatra in Uttar Pradesh. While BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia targeted the Congress at a press conference for Khurshid's comparison, another party spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla,
in a swipe at Congress leaders, said they put "parivaar ki bhakti" (devotion to family) above "bhagwaan and rashtra ki bhakti." The Congress must apologise for hurting Hindu sentiments, Poonawalla said.
The yatra is on winter break and will resume on January 3 from Loni in Ghaziabad.
