Rahul slams Joshi over ‘casteist’ remarks
Bengaluru: Congress president Rahul Gandhi slammed former Union minister and senior Congress leader C P Joshi for his controversial remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union minister Uma Bharti.
Rahul also expressed hope that Joshi will express regret over what he said as the “statement is contrary to the Congress party’s ideals.”
Joshi had said: “If anyone is qualified to speak on religion it is the Pandits, the intellectuals and the Brahmins.” How can Uma, Sadhvi (Rithambara) and Modi, all non-Brahmins, talk about Hinduism? he wondered.
In a Facebook post, Joshi retorted: “I strongly condemn the fabricated use of my statement by the BJP. To put all the speculations to rest. Here is enclosed the clipping of the speech (sic)”. Ahead of the controversial part, Joshi asks who are the BJP leaders to certify whether Congress leaders are Hindus or not.
Two days ago, Joshi had courted another controversy by saying “only a Congress prime minister can build a Ram temple in Ayodhya”.