Smriti Irani in Ludhiana , Wednesday. (Express Photo by Gurmeet Singh) Union Minister and senior BJP leader Smriti Irani Wednesday accused the Congress and its leaders of being anti-Hindu and anti-Sikh, saying it had not only persecuted the Sikhs, but also denied them the justice.
She also took a dig at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for sporting the ‘janeu’ (sacred thread) and roaming from temple to temple “claiming” to be a Hindu.
Addressing a public meeting in support of party candidates in Ludhiana, Irani said it was the BJP which delivered justice in the anti-Sikh 1984 riots’ cases. “The Congress, instead of punishing the culprits, rewarded them with ministries. It is the BJP which sent the culprits to jail,” she said.
The Union minister said that when the BJP government at Centre decided to bring the law to provide Indian citizenship to the harassed minorities in Afghanistan, the Congress opposed it. She said it was the BJP government, which brought to India 155 Sikhs from Afghanistan as they were being persecuted there and granted them citizenship rights.
Irani said BJP government repealed Article 370, which enabled over one lakh Sikhs living in Jammu and Kashmir to get citizenship rights. She said even after 72 years of Independence, the Sikhs who had migrated to Jammu and Kashmir were not granted citizenship rights by the successive Congress governments citing Article 370.
Listing the works done by the BJP government at the Centre, she pointed out that it granted Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) registration to Golden Temple by virtue of which Darbar Sahib will now be eligible to receive foreign donations.
Taking an indirect dig at the Congress for questioning the existence of Lord Ram, she said, now its leader was roaming around the temples while proudly sporting his ‘janeu’.
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