Tharoor attributes Rahul Gandhi’s temple hopping to the Bharatiya Janata Party

New Delhi, Dec 3: Congress president Rahul Gandhi is hopping from one temple to another in the country during this election season. He visited Mahakal Temple in Indore, Pitambara Peeth in Datia, Kailash Mansaroval and many more temples and Lok Sabha MP of the Congress from Thiruvananthapuram Shashi Tharoor has attributed this to the Bharatiya Janata Party.

On being asked that why Rahul Gandhi is visiting one after another temple, Tharoor said, "The Congress has been feeling from very long that it has to display its faith in public with force. We do have faith in God but we never felt like publicly displaying it before people because the Congress is the party of Jawahar Lal Nehru ji's secular tradition. He had stuck to this ideology even during the independent movement."

Tharoor said that but the BJP has forced the Congress to do so. The BJP has started this campaign to differentiate between the true Hindu and atheist secular. He said that if this debate is started in a country like India where religion is deep rooted then secularism will always be at the receiving end. So the Congress has decided to display its religious faith but the party will take everyone along even in this to move ahead. These days Rahul Gandhi is in election rallies and he specially planning to visit temples.

Defending Rahul Gandhi further, the Kerala MP said, "It is absolutely incorrect to look at the matter that we visit temples for being opportunists and for selfish goals." He said that when Rahul Gandhi calls himself a Shiv Bhakt he knows what is he saying. The Congress leader said, "I had spoken to Rahul Gandhi on religion and spiritualism several times and he has a very deep understanding on these subjects. He understands these issues very well."