Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) attacked the BJP and the RSS several times in the past 24 hours on the charge of indulging in divisive politics. It asserted that India would not progress by building temples and pulling down mosques.

“Building temples and razing down mosques will not lead to progress. The RSS has trampled over the poor,” RJD Bihar unit president Jagadanand Singh, a close aide of Lalu Prasad said, at a meeting of party workers on Wednesday evening.

Singh pointed out that the country became a slave at a time when leaders like Ram Manohar Lohia, Karpoori Thakur and Lalu Prasad were not present.

“Everyone knows during whose time the country became a slave. Any faith that has discrimination and segregates people on the basis of their castes, cannot be called a religion. The BJP and RSS are just engaged in doing ‘Hindu-Muslim’,” Singh added.

The Bihar RJD president’s remarks came at a time the Sangh ecosystem has been attacking Tamil Nadu chief minister M.K. Stalin’s son and minister Udhayanidhi Stalin for his comments on Sanatana Dharma.

Udhayanidhi has said his comments had been twisted out of context by vested interests.

Singh said on Thursday: “We are the people who believe in Hey Ram (Mahatma Gandhi’s last words).... A follower of Sanatana Dharma serves the poor, gives water to
the thirsty. Those who instigate Hindus against Muslims cannot be the followers of
Sanatana Dharma,” Singh added.

The Bihar RJD chief alleged that the special session of Parliament had been called with the intention to change the Constitution. He exhorted the people to realise that the issues plaguing the country were not different from the ones from which they were suffering.

The BJP was quick to retaliate and several of its leaders attacked Singh over his remarks.

“Singh criticises the people who wear religious marks on their foreheads, but his leader Lalu Prasad goes and bows at the Siddhivinayak Temple in Mumbai,” senior BJP leader and former Union minister Ravishankar Prasad told reporters in Patna.

Flashing what he termed as the original copy of the Constitution of India, Prasad
laid stress on the paintings in it of deities that many Hindus worship, and went on to attack the Congress.

“I ask Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge whether they decided to defame the Hindu faith at the meeting of their alliance in Mumbai.

“They must tell why such foul things are being spoken about Hinduism, Sanatana religion. Udhayanidhi and A. Raja have also insulted the religion. We will go to each and every village to reveal the real face of this alliance,” Prasad added.

Other BJP leaders claimed that the statements against Sanatana Dharma were being made to appease the minority community.