Rahul Gandhi condemns Mohan Bhagwat’s remarks on the DNA of Indians. (file)
New Delhi:
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday expanded his ‘Hindu versus Hindutva’ pitch to a remark by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief of the ruling BJP’s ideological parent, in which the latter said “the DNA of Indians”. . was the same for the last 40,000 years.
Mohan Bhagwat’s comment What was seen by critics as the latest attempt by the organization to deny who or what makes India and the country’s history of diversity, was picked up by Mr Gandhi for criticism on Twitter.
“Hindus believe that each person’s DNA is unique. Hindutvaists believe that all Indians have the same DNA,” Mr. Gandhi wrote in Hindi.
The latest reaction was in a campaign launched by Mr Gandhi earlier this month, branding the discourse of the BJP and RSS as ‘Hindutvavadi’, different from the community of tolerant and pluralistic Hindus.
The Congress leader had made the same reference a day earlier at a massive election rally in Uttar Pradesh, in which he attempted to portray Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a ‘Hindutvawadi’, not a Hindu.
While inaugurating the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor in Varanasi, he took a dig at PM Modi taking a solo dip in the Ganges, he said, “A Hindutvavadi bathes alone in the Ganges, while a Hindu bathes with crores of people.”
Trying to position his party as one of the “true” Hindus against PM Modi’s “false” Hindutva, he differentiated between the two sides as love against hate and non-violence against violence. He said that Mahatma Gandhi represents Hindus and his assassin Nathuram Godse represents Hindutva.
Speaking at an event in Himachal Pradesh, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had said, “40,000 years ago the DNA of all the people of India is the same as the people of today. We all have one ancestor, because the ancestors who made our country flourish Our culture remained.”
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