Senior Congress leader and former Rajya Sabha member Janardan Dwivedi on Sunday shared the dais with RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and Sadhvi Rithambra during an event here related to the holy book Bhagwat Gita.
Dwivedi, a former general secretary of the party, was sitting in the front row along with Bhagwat, Union Minister Smriti Irani, Ram temple activist Sadhvi Rithambra and other spiritual leaders. The conference on the Gita is being held at the Red Fort.
While Dwivedi clarified that he came to the event in “individual capacity” and not as a Congress leader, and that he was invited, Congress downplayed his presence with BJP and RSS leaders saying that Bhawgat Gita belongs to all.
Dwivedi spoke at length about his duties to perform puja and how he believes that at the core of the freedom struggle is this Hindu scripture. “Gita may be scripture to all but for me, it is my mother. It is Lord Krishna’s life,” stated Dwivedi.
When asked about Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's views about RSS and his sharing stage with RSS chief, Dwivedi said, "Gita is way of life and not religion. This has nothing to do with being secular." Responding to his absence from central election committee meetings, Dwivedi said not attending the meetings is his personal and individual choice.
At the event, Bhagwat stressed upon educating men on how to treat women. "Government has made the laws, it has to be implemented properly. Not everything can be left on administration. Men need to be educated on how to treat women," the RSS chief said.
Congress on its part said that people of all faith and religion irrespective of their political ideologies participate in such events which are pillar of Indian culture.
"Does the Bhagwad Gita belongs only to Mohan Bhagwat and his organisation? We breath the same air as Mohan Bhagwat breath, does that mean we are sharing something or we share the views of Mohan Bhagwat, I don't understand this question. It is so happens that if they are celebrating Bhagwad Gita, people from different ideologies has every right to attend such functions and I don't see anything wrong in that," AICC spokesman Pawan Khera said.