NEW DELHI: The BJP on Wednesday drew a parallel between the British policy of “divide and rule” and what it described as the Congress’ “divide Hindus for Muslim rule” approach, while targeting Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy over his remarks on Lord Ram and Lord Shiva.Also Read | ‘Shiva god of poor, Ram of rich’: Telangana CM Revanth Reddy’s off-the-cuff remark draws BJP’s ireBJP MP and party spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi, speaking at a press conference at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi, said, “The Britishers used the concept of divide and rule… Congress’ approach is to divide Hindus for Muslim rule.”To reinforce his argument, Trivedi claimed that Congress MP and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi had “deliberately chosen” a Muslim-majority constituency. He was referring to Rahul Gandhi’s former constituency of Wayanad in Keralam, where Muslims account for more than 40% of the electorate and form the majority.The Congress MP currently represents Uttar Pradesh’s Raebareli constituency in the Lok Sabha.
What did Revanth Reddy say
The controversy stems from Revanth Reddy’s remarks at a media conclave in New Delhi on September 28.Responding to a question about the Congress’ weak presence in North India, Reddy said, “We are Dravidians. People here (north) are Aryans. We are devotees of Shiva. These are devotees of Lord Ram. BJP stole Ram. It’s an emotion. It’s a sentiment. Why Modi ji does not say Har Har Mahadev. Have BJP people ever said Har Har Mahadev on a stage. They say only Jai Sri Ram. When we say Har Har Mahadev, they don’t like it.”“Shiva is the God of the poor, Ram is the God of the rich and the BJP is a party of the rich,” he added.
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The remarks predictably drew a sharp response from the BJP, while the Congress defended Reddy, saying that Lord Ram “looks rich” and Lord Shiva “physically looks poor.”“Why should he (CM Revanth Reddy) apologise? I’m defending Revanth Reddy. Look-wise, Lord Ram wears a lot of ornaments. He looks rich, whereas Lord Shiva, with no clothes, physically looks poor. That is the difference. But we have affection for both the Gods, we pray to them, and we wish that both the Gods bless us,” Telangana Congress president Mahesh Kumar Goud said.
