PATNA: At a time when there have been talks of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi being a "janeu-dhari Hindu" (one who wears the sacred thread), Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has criticised the party of "veering towards extremism".
"These trends show the party is veering towards extremism in its quest for votes. This is something it has always accused the BJP of," he said.
Speaking up against the use of the term "janeu-dhari", Nitish said that the sacred thread was a mark of "caste-based inequality. He recalled how socialist leader Jayaprakash Narayan had refused to wear the thread and had also asked his followers to discard it.
"By proudly flaunting janeu, the party has unwittingly alienated a large section of the society which has been at the receiving end of the rigid caste hierarchy," Kumar alleged.
The Congress had earlier claimed that Rahul was a "janeu-dhari Hindu" after a row erupted over the alleged listing of his name in the register for non-Hinuds at the Somnath temple in Gujarat.
He also said that the deliberate sidelining of top leaders like Ahmed Patel also shows that people in lower rungs of the Congress can never be elevated to top positions
"The person to be elected for the top position in the Congress is predetermined. People may aspire to get a place in the lower rungs but can never assume the leadership of the party," he said.
