Sushma fires fresh salvo at Rahul over his 'religion'

Union Minister for External Affairs and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) senior leader Sushma Swaraj on Saturday launched a scathing attack on Congress president Rahul Gandhi, stating that Gandhi and his party are confused about his religion and caste.

While addressing media in Jaipur in poll-bound Rajasthan, Swaraj said: "Rahul Gandhi said Prime Minister Narendra Modi does not know the meaning of being a Hindu. He said that because Rahul and Congress are confused about his own religion and caste. For years, the party presented him as a secular leader but near polls when they realised that Hindus are in majority, they created his new image."

 

Further sharpening her attack on the Congress president, she added, "We came to know that he is a 'Janeudhari Brahmin' but I did not know that the knowledge of this 'Janeudhari Brahmin' has increased so much that we will now have to learn the meaning of Hindu from him. God forbid that day when we will have to learn something like that from Rahul Gandhi."

Addressing a rally in Udaipur earlier on Saturday, the Congress chief had said Prime Minister Modi lacks knowledge about the foundation of Hinduism. "What is the essence of Hinduism? What does the Gita say? That knowledge is with everybody, knowledge is all around you. Every living being has knowledge. Our Prime Minister says he is a Hindu but he doesn't understand the foundation of Hinduism. What kind of a Hindu is he," he had asked.

During the press conference, Swaraj also hit out at former Finance Minister and Congress leader P Chidambaram for his remark on the gross domestic product (GDP) and said: "I would like to remind Chidambaram that during the UPA's tenure, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank listed Indian economy in the fragile five. It was listed as one of the economies that were on decline. Today these two organisations themselves call India the fastest growing economy."

Chidambaram on Friday questioned the revised GDP data series published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) and asked that "how can the GDP increase when all the growth indicators are going down."

Reacting to Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi's statement wherein he claimed that their Prime Minister Imran Khan has "bowled a googly at India by opening Kartarpur corridor," Swaraj said, "First of all, it was a pious work. There should not be a race of credit. Imran should answer that it was a googly or he had respected the sentiment of Sikhs from all across the world."

The 200-member Rajasthan Assembly is scheduled to go to polls on December 7. The counting of votes will take place on December 11.