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New Delhi: In a bold expression of his religious ideals, Congress MP and Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi displayed a picture of Lord Shiva, Guru Nanak and Jesus Christ in the Lok Sabha while explaining \u201cthat the opposition follows the values taught by them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gandhi\u2019s actions, however, were met with strong objection by Speaker Om Birla who cited the exhibition of any placard or sign, as a violation of the rules of the House.<\/p>\n
Members of key BJP allies TDP and JDU mostly sat silent but the entire Opposition cheered, particularly Trinamool and DMK members.<\/p>\n
\u201cShivji kahte hain, \u2018daro mat darao mat\u2019 (Lord Shiva says, \u2018Don\u2019t be afraid and don\u2019t make others afraid\u2019),\u201d Rahul said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe shows the fearless posture, talks about non-violence\u2026 and those who call themselves Hindu, they talk about violence, hatred and falsehood round the clock,\u201d he added, provoking BJP allegations that he was attacking the Hindu religion.<\/p>\n
\u201cAap Hindu ho hi nahi (You are not Hindu). In the Hindu religion, it\u2019s written, \u2018Stand with the truth, don\u2019t step back from the truth, don\u2019t fear the truth\u2019. Non-violence is our creed,\u201d Rahul retorted over the din.<\/p>\n
Modi then rose to intervene \u2014 possibly a first for him in the last 10 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeh vishay bahut gambhir hai. Purey Hindu samaj ko hinshak kehna, yeh bahut gambhir hai (This is very serious. Calling the entire Hindu society violent is very serious),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Other BJP members took the cue and launched into a counter-attack.<\/p>\n
Rahul promptly said he wasn\u2019t calling all Hindus \u201cviolent\u201d but only the BJP and Modi.<\/p>\n
\u201cBJP ko, aapko\u2026 nahi, nahi, Narendra Modiji pura Hindu samaj nahi hain. BJP pura Hindu samaj nahi hai (I\u2019m referring to the BJP and you\u2026 no, no, Narendra Modi doesn\u2019t make up the whole of Hindu society, nor does the BJP),\u201d he said, adding that the RSS-BJP did not have a thekedari (monopoly) over Hinduism.<\/p>\n
Pointing to the Opposition members, he said: \u201cAll of them are Hindus.\u201d<\/p>\n
Environment minister Bhupendra Yadav intervened, citing rules. He said Rahul lacked the \u201ctarika\u201d (etiquette), alleging he was continuously \u2014 and inappropriately \u2014 turning his back towards the Chair. He accused Rahul of tarnishing all Hindus.<\/p>\n
Shah rose amid the uproar. \u201cThe LoP has categorically said, \u2018Those who call themselves Hindu, they talk about violence and resort to violence\u2019,\u201d he said, demanding an \u201capology\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe doesn\u2019t know that there are crores in this country who proudly call themselves Hindu. Are they all violent? Equating one religion with violence by a person who occupies a constitutional post, in my opinion, he should tender an apology before the House,\u201d Shah said.<\/p>\n
Modi bit Rahul\u2019s bait the second time when the LoP said defence minister Rajnath Singh had greeted him in the morning with a smile, something Modi or even Nitin Gadkari had never done. He alleged there was \u201cfear\u201d among BJP leaders, even the ministers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Constitution and democracy have taught me to take the leader of the Opposition seriously,\u201d Modi said, striking an ironical note.<\/p>\n
Rahul held up a poster with the image of Shiva and then displayed images representing other religions \u2014 including Islam, Sikhism, Christianity and Buddhism \u2014 to stress that all of them underlined \u201cfearlessness\u201d and \u201cnon-violence\u201d.<\/p>\n
The BJP benches appeared nonplussed initially; the objections started after Rahul shifted from the Shiva image to the symbols of other religions. Speaker Birla too said that showing such images was against the rules.<\/p>\n
As Rahul again held up Shiva\u2019s poster again, Shah stood up. \u201cShowing pictures, accusing the whole of the BJP of being violent\u2026 don\u2019t the rules apply to him?\u201d he said. \u201cThis House can\u2019t run like this. I urge you (Speaker) that the House be in order.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rahul referred to the BJP\u2019s defeat in the Faizabad seat, which includes Ayodhya, saying: \u201cThe birthplace of Lord Ram has sent a message to the BJP.\u201d<\/p>\n
He pointed to Samajwadi MP Awadhesh Parasad, the victor from Faizabad, and said: \u201cAnd the message is sitting right here in front of you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rahul said the BJP lost Ayodhya because land had been acquired for the airport without proper compensation, and small shops and houses were bulldozed to widen the roads.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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[ad_1] New Delhi: In a bold expression of his religious ideals, Congress MP and Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi displayed a picture of Lord Shiva, Guru Nanak and Jesus Christ in the Lok Sabha while explaining \u201cthat the opposition follows the values taught by them.\u201d Gandhi\u2019s actions, however, were met with strong objection by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32529,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/\u2018Modi-BJP-RSS-not-entire-Hindu-community-Rahul-Gandhi-equates-Hinduism-with-Ahimsa.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32528"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32530,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32528\/revisions\/32530"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}