Rahul Gandhi during his Gujarat campaign break from ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ at a rally in Surat recently.
Guwahati:
Assam Chief Minister and BJP’s chief election campaigner Himanta Biswa Sarma, repeating his recent jibe at his former party Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, justified his controversial remarks and reiterated that “Rahul Gandhi, with his beard, Looks like Saddam Hussein”.
“I only said ‘looks’,” he insisted. an interview with ndtv,
“Rahul looks handsome. He is a glamorous person. But, as of now, you compare the photographs (of Saddam Hussain and him), and see for yourself,” Sarma said, dismissing a question on the comparison. Given with the Iraqi dictator. , being seen as a communal spin that promotes conservatism.
On the Congress’ allegation that he looked like a troll, Mr. Sarma claimed ignorance about what ‘troll’ meant. When pointed out that it basically meant abusing, he said, “I only suggested that if Rahul Gandhi cut his beard and everything, he would look like [former PM Jawaharlal] Nehru,” referring to Mr. Gandhi’s great-grandfather.
Last month, when Mr Sarma had first scoffed at a “Saddam Hussain lookalike”, he had said it would be better if Rahul Gandhi looked like Vallabhbhai Patel, Jawaharlal Nehru or Mahatma Gandhi.
Mr Sarma denied any ideological shift on leaving the Congress for the BJP and insisted that he had “Wasted 22 years of my life in Congress“Until his resignation in 2015.
He claimed, “In the Congress, we used to worship a family. In the BJP, we worship the country.” Once a Congress minister in Assam, he has since been serving as minister and now as chief minister in BJP governments.
Sticking to the BJP’s line aggressively used in the recent Gujarat elections, he reiterated widely circulated Hindutva principles on the riots and other crimes. It included a “love jihad” spin to the alleged murder of Shraddha Walker, a Hindu woman in Delhi, by her Muslim boyfriend Aftab Poonawalla. Asked how he could draw religion-based conclusions when there is no evidence and similar crimes have been reported within all communities, he insisted, “The time has come that we legally Define what is ‘love jihad’,” and claimed, “we have many proofs in our state.”
He further sought to blame the communal riots on a specific community – a subtly ambiguous reference to Muslims – saying, “Hindus generally do not contribute to riots.”
Reminiscing about the court’s verdict on the involvement of people from communities in the 2002 Gujarat riots, he said, “I said Hindus generally Don’t cooperate in riots. Hindus do not believe in ‘Jihad’. Hindus, as a community, are peace-loving.”
Asked if he could have said the same things if he was still with the Congress, he rhetorically said: “What is the ideological shift? I have said ‘Hindus are peace-loving’ – will the Congress disagree?”
Even while drawing conclusions in Shraddha Walker’s murder – when the police, too, have not alleged any communal angle – he said he would not comment on the premature release of the 11 men who killed Bilkis Bano, a Muslim woman. Raped her and killed her family members. Gujarat riots of 2002. He argued, “I am a lawyer. I will not speak about the matter which is in the court.”