The Congress on Saturday hit out at the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) for its ‘mischievous’ post on a Christian pastor’s conversation with former party president Rahul Gandhi, who is on his 3,570-km Bharat Jodo Yatra.
Jairam Ramesh, Congress’ General Secretary in-charge of communications, tweeted, “An atrocious tweet from the BJP hate factory is doing the rounds. It bears no relation whatsoever to what is recorded in the audio. This is typical BJP mischief that has become more desperate after the successful launch of #BharatJodoYatra which is evoking such a huge response. (sic)”.
This came after BJP’s national spokesperson, Shehzad Poonawalla, shared a clip of Rahul’s interaction with a Christian priest, whom he identified as George Ponnaiah, saying “Bharat Jodo with Bharat Todo icons?”. Poonawalla claimed that Ponnaiah was earlier arrested for “Hindu hatred”.
In the video, Rahul while addressing a group asks, “So, Jesus Christ is a form of God. Is that correct?” To which, the priest responds, “He’s a real God… God reveals him as a man, a human person, not like Shakti or this power.”
George Ponnaiah who met Rahul Gandhi says “Jesus is the only God unlike Shakti (& other Gods) “
This man was arrested for his Hindu hatred earlier – he also said
“I wear shoes because impurities of Bharat Mata should not contaminate us.”Bharat Jodo with Bharat Todo icons? pic.twitter.com/QECJr9ibwb
— Shehzad Jai Hind (@Shehzad_Ind) September 10, 2022
Hitting back at BJP, Ramesh tweeted, “People who were responsible for the killing of Mahatma Gandhi and the murders of people like Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare, MM Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh are raising questions! What a morbid joke!” He added that “attempts to damage the spirit of the Bharat Jodo Yatra” will fail.
Rahul is on the third day of the Bharat Jodo Yatra, which commenced from Mulagumoodu in Tamil Nadu’s Kanyakumari.