Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday, December 12, said India is a ‘country of Hindus and not Hindutvawadis,’ and that Hindutvawadis need to be ousted from power. Addressing a rally in Jaipur that was also attended by party president Sonia Gandhi and general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, he accused ‘Hindutvawadi’ Prime Minister Narendra Modi of backstabbing farmers and favouring a handful of industrialists.
"This is a country of Hindus, not Hindutvawadis,” he said at the meeting, which was a show of strength just months ahead of Assembly elections in key states like Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.
“Hindutvadis have to be ousted once again and the rule of Hindus brought about in the country," he told a packed stadium. "I am a Hindu and not a Hindutvadi,” he said, drawing a distinction between the two terms, weeks after a similar attempt by him provoked controversy.
“A Hindu heart is filled with love and that of a Hindutvawadi with fear and hatred,” he said. “A Hindu is someone who is not afraid of anyone, embraces everyone, respects all religions and seeks the truth,” he added.
Gandhi said Hindus cannot be suppressed. “It has not happened in 3,000 years and it will not happen now. We are not afraid of dying,” he said.
हिंदुत्ववादी ये सुनकर मुझपर वार करेंगे।
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) December 12, 2021
कर लो, मैं नहीं डरता!#NoFear pic.twitter.com/OYK50KTFRQ
“No matter whatever happens, Hindu seeks and spends his whole life in search of truth whereas Hindutva spends his whole life in search of power and getting empowered. He will kill anyone for the sake of power. The path of Hindu is 'Satyagraha' while the path of Hindutva is 'Sattagraha’,” Rahul said
Describing ‘Hindu’ and ‘Hindutva’ as two different terms, Gandhi said Mahatma Gandhi was a Hindu and his assassin Nathuram Godse a Hindutvadi. He said, “The Mahatma spent his entire life searching for the truth. But in the end, a Hindutvadi fired three bullets into his chest.”
He said no scripture, be it Gita or Ramayana, says the poor have to be killed and downtrodden crushed. “Lord Krishna did not tell Arjuna to kill his brothers for power. It is written in the Gita to fight for the truth even if you have to die,” he said.
Earlier, Priyanka Gandhi slammed the Modi-led Union government, saying it wanted to sell to its industrialist friends whatever the Congress had built in 70 years. She asked what the Modi government has done for the people in the seven years of its rule.
Attacking the Modi government, Rahul Gandhi said that the entire country has been left in the hands of a few industrialists and the country is being run by "Hum Do, Hamare Do."
Rahul Gandhi further said that the government of the country says that no farmer has died during the agitation. "I gave them a list of 500 people from Punjab and Haryana and asked them that the Punjab government has given compensation, you should also give it. But they didn't."