Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday said Hindus generally do not contribute to riots and the community does not believe in “jihad”. When asked about incidents of communal violence in India, the BJP leader said that Hindus are “peace-loving”. In an interview, he also talked about his stand on ‘love jihad’, Shraddha Walker murder case and his “Saddam Hussain” remark against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
During an interview with NDTV, Sarma reiterated the BJP’s earlier stand, such as Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s remarks on teaching the rioters a “lesson” in 2002, and his own call for a Uniform Civil Code.
“Hindus are peace loving. They do not participate in riots. Hindus as a community also do not believe in Jihad. The Hindu community will never engage in riots,” he told NDTV. The remarks came not long after Shah said that anti-social elements had stopped indulging in violence in 2002 after being “taught a lesson”.
Shah’s remarks came during a rally in Gujarat last week. He also said that the BJP has established ‘permanent peace’ in the state.
Sarma’s ‘Saddam’ remark against Rahul Gandhi
Sarma claimed on 23 November Rahul Gandhi The former Iraqi dictator looks like “Saddam Hussein”, and it would have been better if he had changed his appearance like Sardar Patel, Jawaharlal Nehru or Mahatma Gandhi.
During the NDTV interview, Sarma was quoted as saying, “Rahul looks handsome and is a glamorous person. But, now you compare (Saddam Hussain and his) photographs and see for yourself.”
The Assam Chief Minister, who has campaigned in the Gujarat Assembly polls, defended his remark comparing Rahul Gandhi’s appearance with that of Saddam Hussein. He said that when the pitch was elsewhere, Congress leaders were batting in the pavilion wearing their gloves and pads.
When asked if the Congress termed his remarks as a troll, Sarma said he did not mean what the word “troll” meant. On learning that this was only meant to be disrespectful, Sarma was quoted as saying, “I only suggested that if Rahul Gandhi shaves off his beard and everything, he will look like [former PM Jawaharlal] Nehru.”
‘I wasted 22 years in Congress’
Talking about switching over to the BJP from the grand old party, Sarma said that he did not leave the Congress because of the change in ideology. “In Congress, we used to worship one family. In BJP we worship the country. Sarma also said that he wasted 22 years of his life in the Congress.
Sarma made the switch in 2015, when he was a key minister in Assam. Since then, he has held important positions in the BJP, including being the Chief Minister of Assam under the BJP regime.
He said that the Left parties will always find the BJP’s remarks “communal”, but he said them only in the national spirit.
‘Love Jihad’ comment on Shraddha Walker’s murder
Meanwhile, he recently claimed that there is an “element of love jihad” in the Mehrauli murder case and said that apart from roads and electricity, the safety of daughters is an election issue.
Responding to a question on raising the Shraddha Walker murder case during the election campaign and demanding a stringent law to stop “love jihad”, Sarma on Thursday said, “Ignoring love jihad is like appeasement politics and There is concern for the safety. of women. Even in Aftab Poonawalla’s polygraph test, several media reports said that he revealed that his actions would lead him to Jannat.
During an election rally in the national capital last week, Sarma had stressed on the importance of Uniform Civil Code (UCC) and a law against “love jihad”. Referring to the heinous murder, Sarma had said India “Lord Ram is needed, not Aftab (murder accused)”.
Aftab allegedly strangled Walker and cut her body into 35 pieces, which he kept in a 300-litre fridge at his residence in south Delhi’s Mehrauli for nearly three weeks, and then dumped across the city in the middle of the night . Walker was allegedly murdered in May.
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