Dwarkapeeth seer's comments on Sai Baba his personal view: BJP

Indore, Jun 29:

on Monday refused to be dragged into the reported exchange of words between Dwarkapeeth Shankaracharya Swaroopanand Saraswati and Union Minister

over the alleged comments made by the seer on the

of

.

"This is the matter among the seers, and BJP is a political party. Whatever the Shankaracharya has said is his personal opinion and you should seek his reaction on this. It will be better if this issue is not turned into a debate," BJP national spokesperson Vijay Sonkar Shastri told reporters at the party office.

The Union Water Resource Minister yesterday said that though the Shankaracharya was like a father figure to her but she had faith in Sai Baba who never claimed he was god. Complaints have been filed against the seer by devotees of Sai Baba at various places in the country for allegedly hurting their religious sentiments through his comments.

Meanwhile, on the Congress' allegations on involvement of senior leaders of BJP and RSS in the Madhya Pradesh exam and recruitment scam, Shastri said, "It won't be appropriate to comment on this since the matter is sub-judice now."

However, he said that Congress was levelling false allegations against the BJP leaders in order to malign their image and is "over-reacting".

On the price rise, he said that the Narendra Modi government was committed to rein in inflation and steps are being taken in this direction. To a query on Ram temple issue, Shastri said, "BJP is in favour of building a grand temple in Ayodhya, but the issue is between the common people and government now".

PTI