Amid temple run, Rahul Gandhi slams PM for J&K fire'

Ujjain (MP): On a busy day of campaigning and a temple visit in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh, Congress president Rahul Gandhi raked up the issue of Jammu and Kashmir violence and blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the “mistakes” as a result of which the frontier state is “on fire”.

Mr Gandhi on Monday continued his temple run by visiting the ancient shrine of Mahakal, one of the 12 jyotirlingas (Shiva temples considered most revered by Hindus), in Ujjain before kicking off his two-day tour of the Malwa-Nimar region.

Addressing a public meeting in Ujjain, Mr Gandhi said that J&K is “on fire” right now, apparently referring to the latest killings in the state by the terrorists.

The Modi government “opened the doors of J&K for terrorists. No politician was martyred in J&K but Army men are laying their lives there because of Narendra Modi’s mistakes”, Mr Gandhi said.

“The Prime minister talks about surgical strike, Army, Navy but doesn’t talk about Army men… At least, tell us what you did about those who carried out the surgical strike (of  September 2016),” he said.

He also alleged that the “one-rank, one-pension” (OROP) scheme has not been implemented so far and the Prime Minister has been speaking “lies” on the issue.

On the unemployment issue, he took a jibe at Mr Modi for his remark that “selling of pakoda is also a job” and said, “If you fry pakodas, then BJP will take away the money of the oil. Moreover, it will eat fried pakodas.”

Earlier, addressing the gathering, state Congress chief Jyotiradittya Scindia alleged rampant corruption by the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government of the state in organising the Simhastha Kumbh in 2016 at Ujjain.

Meanwhile, the BJP took a potshot at Mr Gandhi for visiting Ujjaain’s famous Shiva temple and reminding him of the “derogatory” remark by senior Congress leader and former Union minister Shashi Tharoor on the “Shivling”, symbolizing Lord Shiva.

“Your are visiting Mahakal temple to offer puja to Lord Shiva, whereas a senior leader of your party (Shashi Tharoor) does not hesitate to pour humiliation on the deity by making “scorpion on Shivling” remark. Are you going to initiate any action against him?” asked national BJP spokesman Sambit Patra while talking to reporters in Indore.

The BJP leader said Mr Gandhi is exhibiting “fancy dress Hinduism” to fool people. The saffron party’s attack on mr Gandhi came in the backdrop of his frequent visits to temples.

Mr Patra said that after the Congress’ humiliating defeat in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, a committee headed by former Union minister A.K. Antony had said that the Congress should take care of the Hindus for its political revival as it was losing ground because of its projected image of a “party of Muslims”.

“After the Antony committee’s report, Rahul Gandhi is exhibiting fancy dress Hinduism continuously. To mislead the Hindus, he is sporting a ‘janeu’ (scared thread) over the shirt. We demand that ‘janeudhari’ Rahul Gandhi clarify to which ‘gotra’ (clan) does he belong to,” Mr Patra said.

He also said since Mr Gandhi had not given any answer to this question, people were calling him a “Vatican gotra ka Brahmin”.

The Congress chief’s mother and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi is an Italian by birth.