New Delhi: Making his way into the "Hinduism and Hindutva" row, Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar on Monday launched a scathing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after former Congress President Rahul Gandhi said Hinduism and Hindutva are different things. During an event, Mani Shankar Aiyar said, "Those of us who believe in the Hindu religion consider country's all citizens Indians. Then there are some, in power, who say 80% of Indians who practice the Hindu religion are real Indians."
"Rahul Gandhi said that there is a difference between Hindu religion and Hindutva. The difference is that those who believe in Hinduism, we are 100% Indian. We consider all people in this country as Indian," he said.
BJP has been recently targeting Congress leaders Salman Khurshid and Rashid Alvi for commenting on Hinduism and Hindutva. Salman Khurshid in his book on Ayodhya verdict titled, 'Sunrise over Ayodhya' compared Hindutva to terror outfits ISIS and Boko Haram.
Last week, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had said that Hinduism and Hindutva are not the same and claimed that RSS and BJP's 'hateful ideology' has eclipsed the 'affectionate and nationalistic' ideology of Congress.
During an event, Rahul said, "Today, whether we believe it or not, the hate ideology of the RSS and the BJP has overshadowed the loving, affectionate and nationalist ideology of the Congress party. Because we haven't propagated it aggressively among our people."
Putting across his point on the difference between Hinduism and Hindutva, he said, "They're obviously different things. Is Hinduism about beating a Sikh or a Muslim? Hindutva of course is."