Agartala: Senior BJP leader and Tripura minister Sudhangshu Das Saturday demanded that the Centre constitute a Sanatan board like the waqf one, either under the existing laws or through a special legislation.
"The state govts have officially been sponsoring Muslims for Haj, but there is no such support for Hindus or people of other religions. This does not justify India's spirit of equality," Das said, adding that the Waqf Board Act should be amended immediately to check the immense power given to it by successive Congress govts.
"I am hoping that a suitable legislation will soon be passed in this regard, but I do demand that a separate Sanatan board be constituted by law to allow Hindu temples and religious institutions to function autonomously and without any draconian govt control," Das, who holds the state animal resources development portfolio, told media persons.
Das said the Hindu Code Bill was passed in 1956, but a Uniform Civil Code mandated by Article 44 of the Constitution is yet to be implemented. He accused the successive Congress govts of taking many steps against Hindu interests to appease its minority vote bank. "Before elections anywhere in the country, Rahul Gandhi becomes a Janeudhari Hindu. But once the elections are over, Rahul castigates Hindus in the vilest possible manner. We cannot forget that in a chat with a diplomat in the US mission, Rahul had said he was not scared of Islamist terrorists but of non-existent Hindu terror," the BJP leader said.
"During their long rule, Congress made a mockery of the Constitution by dismissing elected state govts 88 times by invoking Article 356, played with the judiciary and other important institutions and constitutional bodies, imposed emergency in the country, put up a tainted man as chief election commissioner and now this party and its leader move around flaunting the Constitution," Das said, terming the Congress as a "threat to the unity and integrity of India".