Accidental Hindu: Yogi Adityanath's latest dig at Rahul Gandhi

Amethi, Jan 04: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday targeted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, saying who once sat on his knees in a temple instead of cross-legged is now giving lectures on the difference between Hindu and Hindutva.

The Uttar Pradesh CM claimed that the Congress leader's family has said in the past that they are "Hindus by accident", apparently eluding to a remark, supposedly made by former PM Jawaharlal Nehru.

Addressing a public meeting in Jagdishpur after laying the foundation stone of a medical college, the CM claimed that the Congress leader was chided by a priest in a Gujarat temple when he went there during the Assembly elections and sat on his knees.

"The priest there asked him to sit cross-legged, saying it was a temple, not a mosque," Yogi Adityanath claimed.

"Now those who do not even have this kind of 'sanskar', if they spread the propaganda about Hindu and Hindutva, then it is lack of understanding," Yogi Adityanath said.

He said the Congress leader's ancestors used to say that they are "Hindus by accident".

If it is so, then "what do they know about Hindu and Hindutva", Yogi Adityanath said attacking Rahul Gandhi, who has sought to draw a line between the two terms in his recent speeches.

Yogi Adityanath also accused the Congress of indulging in politics of "disintegration".

"Those having disintegration and divisiveness in their genes, whose family calls themselves accidental Hindus, will never think for you but their compulsion is that people's enthusiasm and faith compels them to bow down," Yogi Adityanath said.

Further attacking Rahul Gandhi, he claimed, "Whenever the former Amethi MP is abroad, he speaks against India and when he is in Kerala, he speaks against Amethi and curses people of Amethi. No one should be so selfish that they should curse people to hide their failure." Yogi Adityanath alleged that the Gandhi family neglected Amethi for 50 years. They never thought of its development, he said.

Today, after 70 years of Independence, his government has established a medical college here, the CM said.

The chief minister said the Government Medical College will have a 500-bed hospital, 100 MBBS seats, a hostel for 460 students and it will start functioning in 2022-23.

Yogi Adityanath also dedicated to people a 200-bed district referral hospital built at a cost of ₹ 86.42 crore at Tiloi.

Apparently referring to Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi, he said the brother-sister duo committed a "fraud" in the name of organising buses to ferry migrants during the coronavirus lockdown in 2020.

He said on inquiry it came to light that they had given "numbers of scooters, instead of buses" to ferry people. Union Minister Smriti Irani, who had defeated Rahul Gandhi from Amethi in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, said he and his family kept Amethi in darkness.

"Hand (Congress symbol) caught hold of bicycle (election symbol of Samajwadi Party) and riding on cycle and elephant (BSP symbol) despised the dreams of Amethi," she said.

As soon as the elections come, the brother and sister came to Jagdishpur and talked about Hindu and Hindutva, she said.

"I want to tell them that the real Hindu is the one who is getting the Ram temple built in Ayodhya," Ms Irani said.

The family which ruled Amethi for 50 years is roaming around the state and speaking about girls but they could not give medical facilities to sisters of Amethi, she said.