New Delhi: Congress MP Rahul Gandhi’s speech on the Babri Masjid has enraged the BJP and made the controversy over the mosque’s demolition an issue in the UP polls.
“Had anyone from the Gandhi family been active then, it would not have happened at all. I have heard my father telling my mother that he would have stood in front of the Masjid to protect it,” Rahul said in Deoband on Monday.
The BJP on Tuesday shot back by saying that Rahul had insulted “Hindu sentiments.” "We are shocked to see how this young man and his party can stoop so low to please Muslims that they can go all out to insult sentiments of the Hindu community. His remarks show that his family is now all opposed to construction of a Ram temple at that site which is highly condemnable," senior BJP leader Vijay Kumar Malhotra was quoted by PTI as saying.
He claimed Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru had banned Muslims from entering the Babri Masjid in 1949 and that Rahul’s father, Rajiv Gandhi, opened its gates to Hindus as Prime Minister.
"In a way Rahul Gandhi had shown disrespect to his own father and grandfather but the larger issue is about the sentiments of the Hindu community which he has hurt badly," said Malhotra.
Speaking to students of the world famous Deoband’s Islamic seminary, Rahul had said: “I am blind to caste and religion. I see everyone as Hindustani... If one Hindustani tries to harm another, I promise I will come in between. Please remember that I am the grandson of Indira Gandhi.”
Some political analysts believe that Rahul’s speech is an indictment of his own party, as when the Babri Masjid was demolished on December 6, 1992 P V Narasimha Rao was the Prime Minister.
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