Madhya Pradesh: India Already a Hindu Rashtra, says Kamal Nath

Bhopal: Congress veteran and former chief minister Kamal Nath on Tuesday said that with 82 percent Hindu population, India was already a Hindu rashtra and there was ‘no need’ to make a declaration of this.

Mr Nath’s statement comes amid raging row over patronisation given by him to seer Bageshwar Baba who has stirred a hornet’s nest by demanding to declare India a Hindu rashtra.

Mr Nath’s son Nakul, sitting Congress MP from Chhindwara, hosted a three-day religious discourse by the seer, Dhirendra Shastri who is known among his disciples as Bageshwar Baba, in Samiriya in Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh that concluded late on Monday night.

Mr Nath had accorded a grand reception to him in Chhindwara by doing ‘aarti’ of him and showering praises on him during the event saying that people of Chhindwara were lucky to have Baba among them.

“Both of us are bound by a common religious thread since both of us are staunch devotees of Lord Hanuman”, he told the head priest of the Bageshwar Dham while declaring closure of the event on Monday night.

Mr Nath however has drawn flak from his own party and outside for playing host to the controversial seer in Chhindwara.

Former RJD MP Shivanand Tiwari slammed Mr Nath for patronising the seer and sought a clarification from the Congress high command in this regard.

Congress leader Acharya Pramod Krishnam has also taken strong exception to the soft Hindutva being played by Mr Nath, describing it ‘improper’.

Mr Nath however clarified that that it was not a programme pertaining to a particular religion, but it was an all religion event.

“Sikh, Christian and Muslim religious leaders had also attended the programme. Even, the seer had announced that it was an all religion programme”, Mr Nath said.

Interestingly, the self-styled god man had told the reporters on the sidelines of the event that Gyanvapi is a Shiva temple and people should stop calling it a mosque.

Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has meanwhile taken a jibe at Mr Nath for playing host to the seer in Chhindwara saying that “Mr Nath is an opportunistic religious person who turns a devotee when election approaches’.

He reminded Mr Nath of the stand taken by Congress that Lord Ram was a fiction and never existed and said, “Those who discarded Lord Ram questioning his existence are now claiming them as the staunch devotee of the deity”.