Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Sunday slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for being "shameless" in calling Mahatma Gandhi's assassin Nathuram Godse a "saput" (worthy son) of India.
If the BJP leaders hail Godse, how can they embrace Mahatma Gandhi, he asked.
His statements come days after Union minister Giriraj Singh, who while speaking in Dantewada city of Chhattisgarh on Friday, termed Godse a ‘saput’ of the country and said the assassin of the Mahatma was not an invader like Mughal rulers Babar and Aurangzeb as he was born in India.
Baghel, while addressing a convention of the ruling Congress workers from the Raipur division held as part of preparations of the state Assembly elections due by the year-end, recalled that he had once asked BJP MLAs during a session of the Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly to raise "Godse Murdabad" slogan, but they failed to do it.
"They call Godse a 'saput' of India...How shameless! You and I can feel bad about it, but Godse is their idol. If you call Godse a 'saput', then how can you embrace Gandhi?" the CM asked.
"They have only one agenda - conversion and communalism. We have to counter them," the CM said.
Elaborating on the incident in Chhattisgarh Assembly, Baghel said, "I told them (BJP leaders) that you have accepted Mahatma Gandhi, his spectacles and his lathi, which is very good. You are raising the slogan 'Mahatma Gandhi Amar Rahe', but for once can you say 'Nathuram Godse Murdabad'?"
"But they could not say 'Godse Murdabad', because they consider him their ideal and they have an old relationship with Naxalism," he said.
He further said that on May 25, the anniversary of the 2013 Jhiram valley Naxal attack in which several Congress leaders and workers were killed, he sought to know how the names of accused Naxalites Ramanna and Gudsa Usendi were removed from the final report.
"They (BJP) have links with Naxalites Therefore they can shamelessly call Godse a 'saput' of Bharat. This is a fight of ideology," the CM added.
- With PTI Input
