Govt doesn't understand the meaning of 'raj dharma', says Sibal

The government does not understand the meaning of 'raj dharma', said senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Saturday while responding to Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad's remark that Sonia Gandhi should not preach "raj dharma" to the central government.

"Vajpayee ji's 'raj dharma' was not respected by them in Gujarat, during the riots in 2002. If BJP doesn't accept Vajpayee then why will they accept what Congress is saying? They don't know the meaning of 'raj dharma' because they don't know the meaning of 'Dharma'," Sibal told ANI.

The Congress leader said that the government talks about 'Hindutva' but doesn't understand 'Hinduism'.

 

"They talk about Hindutva but they don't understand what Hinduism is. Dharam means spirituality so please ask the law minister what is the meaning of Dharma? What Kautaliya said about spirituality and moral fibre of raja (king). The moral of Raja as far as the Indian context is our Dharam is our constitution," he said.

"The constitution was massacred in the last few days in Delhi by kind of violence that took place. There was nobody to protect that Constitution, who is the law minister to talk about Dharma at all," he added.

Earlier on Thursday, Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh along with other party leaders had met President Ram Nath Kovind in Delhi and sought the removal of Home Minister Amit Shah over Delhi violence, alleging that he "abdicated his duty" and "allowed the situation to escalate through inaction".

The party leaders urged the President to use his powers to ask the central government to protect "raj dharma" so that people were assured of peace, tranquillity and justice.

Later, Prasad lashed out at the Congress interim President and her party leaders on Friday, asking them not to preach "raj dharma" to the central government.

At least 42 people have died while around 200 people sustained serious injuries in the violence that rocked North-East Delhi for four days.