NEW DELHI: The Congress on Tuesday demanded the Centre clarify its stand on RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s remark that religious conversion was the main objective of Mother Teresa’s service to the poor.
While the government refused to comment in Parliament about the statement, BJP leader Meenakshi Lekhi defended the RSS boss, claiming that Mother Teresa herself had said her job was to bring people to the fold of Christianity.
“Kindly read the book written by Navin Chawla, a Congress loyalist, on Mother Teresa, where she herself says during an interview that ‘a lot of people confuse me as social worker, I am not a social worker. I am in the service of Jesus and my job is to spread the word of Christianity and bring people to its fold,” Lekhi told reporters outside Parliament.
During the Zero Hour in Parliament, Congress MP Jyotiraditya Scindia said all the members must condemn Bhagwat’s remark. The government, however, refused comment.
“The government has nothing to do with such statements. Individual organisations have every right to speak outside [Parliament],”
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu said. Naidu’s statement led to a verbal duel between him and Scindia, with the latter saying that since the government was the nation’s custodian, it must respond and added that “otherwise people will give a befitting reply”.
Naidu then took at dig at Scindia, saying the people of the country had already made clear their decision and “that is why the Congress is sitting in the Opposition”.