Taking a dig at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's holy dip at the Kumbh Mela on Tuesday, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday said, "You Want To Keep Ganga Clean And Also Wash Sins There".
Taking to Twitter, Tharoor wrote: "Ganga bhi swachh rakhni hain, aur paap bhi yahi dhone hain. Iss Sangam mein sab nange hain. Jai Ganga Maiya ki!" (You want to keep the Ganga clean and also wash sins there. Everyone is naked in this sangam. Hail Goddess Ganga!)
Tharoor along with the tweet posted a picture of the UP CM.
However, Tharoor's tweet soon came under fire from the opposition parties.
Speaking to ANI on Wednesday, BJP spokesman Nalin Kohli said such comments on Hindu practices by an educated person like Tharoor is very unfortunate.
"This is very unfortunate. An extremely educated and respected person like Tharoor always comes up with such kind of comments related to practices of the Hindu religion" Kohli said.
Earlier, Uttar Pradesh minister and Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party chief Om Prakash Rajbhar too said the chief minister and his minister had gone there to wash off their sins.
"The ministers in the Yogi Adityanath government had gone for a holy dip at the Sangam on Tuesday for washing their sins...going back on promises made to the public is also a sin and the ministers have tried to wash it through a dip in the Sangam," Rajbhar said.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and many of his ministerial colleagues took the holy dip at Sangam -- the trinity of Ganga, Yamuna and the mystical Saraswati -- at the ongoing Kumbh on Tuesday.
Soon after finishing the cabinet meeting, the ministers led by the saffron-robed Chief Minister went to the holy confluence of rivers and amid the popping of flash bulbs, wide-eyed common people and frenzied lensmen, took the dip.
The Chief Minister was accompanied in the ritual by Deputy Chief Ministers Dinesh Sharma and Keshav Prasad Maurya, state Medical Education Minister Ashutosh Tandon, Health Minister and local legislator Siddhartha Nath Singh, Agriculture Minister and party veteran Surya Pratap Shahi and Civil Aviation Minister Nand Gopal Gupta 'Nandi'.
Chanting hymns, the Chief Minister and other ministers of the Uttar Pradesh government performed rituals assisted by seers and some local priests.
(With inputs from agencies)
