The Congress on Saturday slammed BJP leaders for praising Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse and indirectly referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying “he turned Bapu’s spectacles into a logo for Swachh Bharat, but takes no action to pull up his colleagues”.
Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh tweeted, “First it is a former CM of Uttarakhand, Trivendra Singh Rawat, who calls Nathuram Godse a patriot. Now Union Minister Giriraj Singh praises him. But the man who turned the Mahatma’s spectacles into a logo for Swachh Bharat — a rebrand of the earlier Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan — says nothing and takes no action to pull up his colleagues.”
His remarks came after Giriraj Singh said on Friday, “If Godse is Gandhi’s killer, he is also the nation’s son. He was born in India, and he was not an invader like Aurangzeb or Babar. Whosoever feels happy to be called the son of Babar, that person can’t be the son of Bharat Mata.”
Singh made the remarks while talking to reporters at Dantewada in Chhattisgarh.
Earlier, former Uttarakhand Chief Minister and BJP leader Trivendra Singh Rawat had triggered a controversy after he dubbed Godse as a patriot during his visit to Ballia in Uttar Pradesh.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Rawat had said, “Gandhi ji was killed. That is a different issue. But as far as I have understood and read Godse, he too was a patriot. We do not agree with the killing of Gandhi ji.”
Rawat had also termed Godse a patriot while mocking Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for “merely” sharing the surname with the father of the nation.
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