The BJP MLA from Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar also accused the previous Samajwadi Party regime in the state of being biased towards “members of a particular community.”
New Delhi: Just weeks after Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat asserted that anybody living in India is a Hindu, a BJP party leader from Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar district has sparked a row by claiming that since the country is called ‘Hindustan’, the country belongs to Hindus.
According to Indian Express, Vikram Saini further said: “Kuch nalayak netao ne in lambi dadhi valo ko yahan rok kar rakha. In logo ne jameen aur daulat hathiyaee. Agar ye na hote toh yeh sab hamara hota (A few incompetent leaders stopped these people with long beards from leaving. These people usurped land and wealth. Had they not been here, all this would have been ours)”.
Speaking at an event on January 1, BJP MLA said that while his party “believes in sabka saath, sabka vikas,” the previous Samajwadi Party government in the state had favoured “members of a particular community” when it came to public welfare schemes.
The BJP MLA from Khatauli alleging that the previous regime in the state was biased, further said: “Jiski jitni lambi dadhi, usko utna lamba cheque (The longer one’s beard, the more the amount on his cheque).”
This, however, is not the first time that the 48-year-old MLA has made headlines for his controversial statements. In March 2017, Saini said at an event that he would “break the hand and legs” of those disrespecting and killing cows. He had also been accused of making inflammatory speeches during the Muzaffarnagar riots in 2013 and had been booked and arrested for the same under the National Security Act.
Saini’s comment that: “yeh Hinduo ka desh hai (This country belongs to the Hindus),” follows Bhagwat’s assertion at an event in Tripura in mid-December that “Muslims in India are also Hindus” and an external ministry’s recent handbook claiming that Hindu thought is Bhartiya thought, and only Hindu society can be spiritual.
The e-book published by the ministry in late September 2017, just days before the birth anniversary of RSS ideologue and Bharatiya Jan Sangh founder Deendayal Upadhyaya, had drawn severe flak from former diplomats.
(With PTI inputs)