New Delhi: A controversy broke out over Rahul Gandhi’s charge on Monday that he was stopped from entering a Vaishanvite monastery in Barpeta by RSS workers during his recent visit to Assam.
As the claim by the Congress vice-president triggered a political slugfest, the BJP alleged it was “fabricated”, saying RSS does not run temples and without naming anyone said “wrong messages” are being spread to “mislead” people.
Rahul claimed that what happened to him at the temple during his visit to Assam last week was BJP’s style of politics which was “unacceptable”. “When I went to Assam I wanted to visit a temple in Barpeta district. And at the temple the RSS people there stopped me from entering the temple. This is the way the BJP operates,” Rahul said outside Parliament.
“They made the women there stand in front of me and told me that I cannot enter the temple,” he said, and asked, “Who are they to stop me?” Rahul, who was in Barpeta last Friday, said he visited the monastery later in the evening when the suspected RSS workers had left the place.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi maintained that the Barpeta Satra had told him that Rahul Gandhi will not be allowed to enter the monastery. “The Satra head had told me that Rahul Gandhi will not be allowed to enter the Satra. The RSS instigated it.
“Never heard anyone being prevented from entering the Satra before. I ask them even today why they prevented (Rahul from entering). Everyone has the right to enter. If RSS is not there, then why not question them why we were not allowed in,” the chief minister said.
“Earlier somebody (Selja) claimed that she was stopped from entering a temple in Dwarka and she was exposed in Parliament. What Gandhi says is fabricated and a lie,” BJP leader and Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said in Delhi.
Another BJP leader and Union minister M. Venkaiah Naidu without naming anyone said “spreading” wrong messages and to mislead people has become the habit.
