Begusarai: “I doubt Indira or Sonia had a mangalsutra to sacrifice,” said Union Rural Development Minister Giriraj Singh, who is contesting from Bihar’s Begusarai Lok Sabha constituency.
He was responding to Priyanka Gandhi, who — reacting to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s jibe that Congress would take gold and mangalsutras away from women if voted to power — had asserted that her mother had sacrificed her mangalsutra, likely referring to Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, and that her grandmother had donated hers towards India’s war efforts.
“I don’t know whether her mother, Sonia Gandhi, who is from Italy, had a mangalsutra or not, and whether her grandmother, Indira Gandhi, who married Feroze Gandhi, had a mangalsutra. In Feroze’s religion, the practice of having a mangalsutra is not there. I believe Priyanka has a mangalsutra, but how many days more will they go on about ‘dadi’, ‘pariwar’?” the Union minister said to ThePrint.
Feroze Gandhi was born into a Parsi family in Bombay.
Giriraj Singh has made other controversial remarks about the Gandhis in the past. He once said Sonia Gandhi’s skin colour helped her become the Congress President and had called Rahul Gandhi a “clown” another time.
Regarding the mangalsutra controversy, the minister further said, “What is a country’s resource? When the country faced a crisis during Chandra Sekhar’s government, he pledged gold to save the country. If any (former) prime minister like Manmohan Singh said Muslims have first claim on national resources, and if during the China war, mother-daughter donated their mangalsutras for the country, it was our wealth.”
His comments on Manmohan Singh came after PM Modi made similar allegations while campaigning for the elections in Bihar.
They were referring to a 2006 National Development Council meeting where then PM Manmohan Singh emphasised the importance of “programmes for the upliftment of SC/STs, other backward classes, minorities and women and children”, and of ensuring that “minorities, particularly the Muslim minority, are empowered to share equitably in the fruits of development”.
Taking the party line on appeasement politics by the Congress, Singh further said, “Prime Minister Modi said that our poor people have a claim on national resources, but the Congress wants to divide the country. The country has been facing appeasement politics since Independence due to the Congress.”
Criticising political dynasties, Giriraj Singh told ThePrint, “What is the Congress party’s contribution to the country? What was the contribution of Indira? Did she participate in any freedom movement?… She was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru.”
“From Congress to Lalu Prasad and Mamata Banerjee, they have promoted their kin in politics. What is the comparison of these family-based parties with Prime Minister Modi, who has no wealth and no money in his hand despite a long tenure of governance — first as chief minister for 12 years and another 10 years as the PM,” he said.
“He (Modi) is a fakir; he came as God to develop India and protect its culture,” he added.
Giriraj Singh won the Nawada Lok Sabha seat in the 2014 elections, but, more significantly, he defeated CPI candidate Kanhaiya Kumar in the 2019 elections in Begusarai, considered a communist party hub, with a margin of more than two lakh votes.
This election, Singh is fighting against three-time MLA Awadhesh Rai from the CPI, which, along with the RJD, is a part of the INDIA alliance. In 2019, the RJD was not in an alliance with the CPI, which had made the road easy for Singh.
On BJP’s path ahead
Charting the BJP’s ideological agenda after the introduction of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in Uttarakhand and the Ram Mandir inauguration in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya, Giriraj Singh said the country will need a population control law and a National Register of Citizens (NRC) to check infiltration.
The BJP’s 2024 manifesto, published this April, has skipped the NRC while retaining the promises of implementing the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the UCC from its 2019 manifesto.
Giriraj Singh advocated for population control, saying, “Jinnah’s gone, but Jenna, Jinnah are still left. A few people, Owaisi (AIMIM President Asaduddin Owaisi), brothers, said recently that Hindus have many children. I would like to ask if Owaisi would propose a population control bill in the Parliament?”
The country’s population growth has become alarming, he said. “We are more than China. Unofficially, Rohingyas and Bangladeshis have infiltrated the country… In every country, there is an identity card for citizens… whether Hindu, Muslim, or Sikh, the national identity number should be there for every citizen as in every country,” he added.
He also countered AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi’s claim that the fertility rate among the Muslim population has declined, saying, “I don’t know which research wing he is using.”
Asked whether it was Kashi’s and Mathura’s turn to get temples after Ayodhya, the Union minister said, “In Pakistan, no temple remains safe and intact… Signs of invaders remain in India, in Ayodhya, Kashi, and Mathura. The Congress people deliberately kept signs of invaders intact to get the votes of Muslims.”
“Ayodhya claim was raised, but the court gave rights of Ayodhya to the people. I would like to appeal to Muslim brothers to hand over such sites to Hindus. If ‘maqbara (tomb)’ has been built on Krishna’s birthplace, and it (the land) is not given back, it will create anger in people. Muslims can go to Makkah, there are so many ‘maqbaras‘, where will Hindus go? For Hindus, only three sites of Kashi, Mathura, and Ayodhya are important.”
‘Don’t need votes from Pakistanis’
Defending his comments that he wouldn’t seek votes from “pro-Pakistani anti-nationals” after which the Communist Party of India raised a complaint against him with the Election Commission (EC), Giriraj Singh said, “I didn’t make any wrong statement… From 1982 to 1992, Rohingya and infiltrator populations rose, and shelters for these people emerged. Many people support these anti-nationals. I asked my people not to ask for votes from anti-national and Pakistan ‘premi (lover)’ people.”
“I want to ask the ‘tukde tukde’ gang and the RJD (Rashtriya Janata Dal), do you want votes from Pakistanis? Do you want votes of anti-nationals? This is the height of appeasement politics,” he added.
Asked why the BJP didn’t want a caste census in the country, but the party’s Bihar unit supported it in the state, Singh said, “BJP supported it in Bihar… If states conduct surveys, the aggregate of the states’ surveys will give a picture of the national status. We never opposed that.”
He also said that it was out of ignorance that Congress was making caste census an issue in the country when it was Rahul’s father, Rajiv Gandhi, who opposed the Mandal Commission. “Rahul Gandhi doesn’t have any knowledge of the history of this country… he needs a tutor,” he added.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)