Kapil Mishra targets Rahul Gandhi over surname, Savarkar remark

PTI, Apr 2, 2023, 5:19 PM IST

Targeting former Congress president Rahul Gandhi for his ‘I am not Savarkar’ remark, BJP leader Kapil Mishra on Sunday said that he can never be like the freedom fighter who was a patriot.

Mishra also said that Congress leaders once questioned the existence of Lord Ram while living in big houses but today when Lord Ram’s magnificent temple is ready, they ”are losing their bungalow”.

“The biggest lie was told just a few days back that ‘I am Gandhi and not Savarkar’. …You are not even a real Gandhi and you cannot be Savarkar because the first condition of being a Savarkar is to be a patriot and to have unshakable faith in the nation of ‘Akhand Sanatan Bharat’,” Mishra said.

”Just as a trader based in Moradabad puts up a board saying ‘Agra ka petha is made here’, a board in the name of ‘Gandhi’ has been put so that their business keeps on running,” the BJP leader said.

He was speaking at a session on Sanatan Sanskriti and Hindutva organised by Navonmesh Foundation here. Responding to a query in a press conference on repeated calls by the BJP asking him to apologise over various issues, Rahul Gandhi had said a few days back, “My name is not Savarkar, my name is Gandhi and Gandhi does not offer an apology to anyone.” He was referring to Hindutva idealogue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar.

Mishra, who had courted controversy for allegedly making inflammatory speeches ahead of the 2020 Northeast Delhi riots, also targeted the Congress over the Ayodhya Ram temple.

“Now I want to ask Congress leaders whether Ram exists or not. Ramlala used to live in tents and they used to live in big bungalows and then used to say that Ram is not there, Ram is imaginary. The grand temple of Ramlala is ready and you will not have a house to live in,” the former MLA from Delhi said, without naming anyone.

In September 2007, the then UPA government withdrew from the Supreme Court two affidavits, including the controversial one claiming that there was no historical or scientific evidence to establish the existence of lord Ram and Ram Setu as a man-made bridge.

After being disqualified from Lok Sabha following his conviction in a criminal defamation case by a Surat court recently, Rahul Gandhi got a notice from the Lok Sabha secretariat to evict his official bungalow.

“Bitter truth is that ‘Gandhi’ is not behind your name because of the one whose ‘Samadhi’ is at Raj Ghat, Gandhi is behind your name because of your ancestor whose grave is in Prayagraj,” Mishra said.

“You bring your real ancestors in front of the country and go and offer flowers on their graves and then I will believe that you are doing politics in the name of your family heritage,” he said.

In his address, Mishra alleged that a distorted history was taught after independence. He said India got independence due to revolutionaries like Subhash Chandra Bose and others, and Congress was formed ”only to keep the nationalists away from being in power”. Mishra said that a leader instills energy and positivity among people and this is what Prime Minister Narendra Modi is doing. “They want to remove ‘chowkidar’ not because they have a problem with him, they want to remove him because they have a problem with you and Modi is standing as a wall between you and them,” he added.