Owaisi slams Rahul Gandhi for Hindutva remark; 'India belongs to all Bharatiyas'

Asaduddin Owaisi on Saturday came down heavily on Congress' former president Rahul Gandhi for his 'Hindu and Hindutva' rally speech. Taking to his official Twitter handle, Owaisi expressed anguish at Gandhi for listing 'bringing Hindus to power' as the 'secular agenda' for 2021, especially when his party- Congress- was the one to 'fertilize the ground for Hindutva'. 

"India belongs to all Bharatiyas. Not Hindus alone. India belongs to people of all faiths and also those who have no faith," Owaisi reminded Gandhi on Twitter.

Rahul Gandhi reflects on Hindu-Hindutva difference

Rahul Gandhi in a fiery address to the Congress supporters in Jaipur said, 'I do not fear as I am a Hindu, not a Hindutvavadi'.  Pointing out that there were two words - Hindu and Hindutvavadi, the former Congress President said, "Mahatma Gandhi is Hindu, Godse is Hindutvavadi. A Hindu faces his fear while Hindutavadi bows down before his fear, and that fear creates enmity. This is the difference between Hindu and Hindutavadi." 

Explaining why he was raking up Hindu-Hindutva, he added, "This country is of Hindus and not of Hindutavadis. Hindus cannot be suppressed, did not happen in 3000 years and will not happen even today.  So Modi ji and his industrialists destroyed this country in 4-5 years, but when Hindu farmers stood in front of Hindutvavadis, PM Modi apologised".

Lashing out at Centre, he went on, "He apologised, but when farmers asked compensation, he refused it. In parliament, the Centre said it had no record of the martyrs. I showed a list of 500 farmers from Punjab and 70 names from Haryana and demanded that they compensate them. But PM Modi refused. Do not fear, we will never lose". 

Congress' Mehangai rally was held in Jaipur and attended by Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi, Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot, Rajasthan in-charge Ajay Maken, Randeep Singh Surjewala and others.

Image: ANI/@INCIndia-Twitter