The trust managing the famous Saibaba temple in Shirdi on Wednesday demanded an apology from Congress president Rahul Gandhi for “insulting” Sai devotees across the world. This after Rahul stirred a controversy as he sought to target Railway Minister Piyush Goyal over his family’s business interests in Shirdi Industries.
The Congress later said that it respects Sai Baba and his devotees, but asked the ‘Saibaba Sansthan Trust, Shirdi’ to urge the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the regulatory body for stocks exchanges, to ensure that no company misuses the name of ‘Shirdi’ and its goodwill. “Friends... ‘The miracles of Shirdi’ have no ‘seema’ (limits)”, Gandhi tweeted, tagging a news report claiming growing investments of Piyush Goyal and his wife Seema. He also used the hashtag “PiyushGhotalaReturns” along with his tweet.
Objecting to the tweet, Chairman of the Shirdi Trust Suresh Haware said devotees of Sai Baba were hurt by Gandhi’s remarks.
“Rahulji, it is painful to see the name of ‘Shirdi’ being dragged into political slugfest. Sai devotees from within the country and abroad are deeply hurt by this. We condemn this on behalf of all Sai ‘bhakts’. You should apologise to ‘Sai Bhakts’ for this insult,” Haware tweeted in Hindi. The Congress had on Tuesday demanded the resignation of Goyal alleging that his family has business interests in companies which are in default.
Hitting back, the BJP had said the Congress was making “false”, “sensational” and “scurrilous” statements to divert attention from the many scams committed by it.