Digvijaya Singh accuses BJP, VHP and RSS of insulting Goddess Sita; insists on ‘Jai Siyaram’ slogan

INDORE: Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Wednesday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh( RSS) of insulting Goddess Sita.

Talking to reporters here, Singh asked, ”Our objection is why do BJP, VHP and RSS insult Sitaji. Since they insult Sitaji, we oppose their ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogan. We say ‘Jai Siyaram’ and not ‘Jai Shri Ram’,” Singh told reporters here.

”In politics, we never use religion for elections. We worship Lord Ram and have also donated for the Ram temple being built in Ayodhya,” he said.

He said that as long as he is active in the Congress, those who quit the party and switched over to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that triggered the fall of the Kamal Nath government in 2020, will never be able to return to the grand old party. The Kamal Nath government collapsed on March 20, 2020, after 22 rebel Congress MLAs loyal to senior leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, resigned from the Assembly and joined the BJP. After this, the BJP returned to power in the state and Shivraj Singh Chouhan once again became the chief minister.

Singh alleged that groupism was prevalent in the BJP and someone said the saffron party was now split into three camps – ‘Shivraj BJP, Maharaj BJP and naraz (disgruntled) BJP’ – referring to the alleged factions of CM Chouhan, Scindia and disgruntled elements in the party respectively. ”This condition of the BJP is visible in every part of the state today,” the Rajya Sabha member said.

He claimed that a controversy over the uniform of girl students at a private school in Damoh was created by the ruling BJP to divert the attention of media from alleged corruption in the construction of Mahakal Lok in Ujjain, where six out of the seven ‘Saptarishi’ (seven sages) idols recently collapsed due to gusty winds. The state Education Department last week suspended the recognition of Ganga Jamuna Higher Secondary School in Damoh following a controversy over a poster showing girls, including Hindu students, wearing headscarves that looked like hijab as part of the uniform. A couple of students of the school alleged that Hindu students were being forced to wear hijabs and offer namaz in the school.

Singh also alleged that the two persons named as accused in the Indore’s Beleshwar Mahadev temple tragedy have not been arrested so far due to the patronage of local BJP leader. On March 30 this year, 36 persons were killed after the slab of the temple built over a step-well caved in. Targeting the central government over demonetisation, the former MP chief minister said Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes were suddenly scrapped in 2016, while a four-month long moratorium has been given to return Rs 2,000 notes this time allegedly to benefit rich people and corporates having ”black money”.

Source: Press Trust of India