Union minister Ananth Kumar Hegde, who once drew criticism for saying the BJP has come to power to change the Constitution, has once again delivered a statement that could trigger a controversy. The minister, while addressing a rally in Karnataka’s Kodagu, on Sunday said that any hand that touches a Hindu girl should be cut.
“There should be a fundamental shift in our thinking. We should keenly observe what’s happening around us. Regardless of caste and religion, a hand that touches a Hindu girl should not exist,” the minister said.
Earlier in 2017, Hegde was in the centre of another controversy after he said that his party, the ruling BJP, will “soon change the Constitution”, which mentions the word “secular”.
#WATCH: Union Minister Ananth Kumar Hegde in Kodagu, “We have to rethink about priorities of our society. We shouldn’t think of caste. If a Hindu girl is touched by a hand, then that hand should not exist.” #Karnataka pic.twitter.com/4uVNnIrNeu
— ANI (@ANI) January 27, 2019
“Some people say the Constitution says secular and you must accept it. We will respect the Constitution, but the Constitution has changed several times and it will change in the future too. We are here to change the Constitution and we’ll change it,” he had said.
The minister had also urged people to “claim with pride that they are Muslim, Christian, Lingayat, Brahmin, or a Hindu”, adding, “Those who, without knowing about their parental blood, call themselves secular, they don’t have their own identity…They don’t know about their parentage, but they are intellectuals.”
