Cong. kept a sacred symbol as ‘walking stick’, says Shah

Minister attacks Opposition party over Sengol row, denounces claims that there is no evidence of it being a symbol of transfer of power to India

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday launched a sharp attack on the Congress, asking why it hated Indian traditions and kept a sacred symbol as a walking stick. He said the Opposition party had created a controversy over Sengol — a historical sceptre from Tamil Nadu — by terming as “bogus” the BJP’s account of its role at the time of Independence.

Mr. Shah was responding to Congress leader Jairam Ramesh’s claim that there was no documented evidence of India’s first Governor-General Lord Louis Mountbatten, its last Governor-General C. Rajagopalachari, and first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru describing the sceptre as a symbol of the transfer of power by the British to India. The BJP maintained that the sceptre was indeed received by Nehru, which symbolically represented the transfer of power from the British, and that it was later kept in a museum in Allahabad, now known as Prayagraj.

‘Shameful insult’

“Why does the Congress party hate Indian traditions and culture so much? A sacred Sengol was given to Pandit Nehru by a holy Shaivite math from Tamil Nadu to symbolise India’s freedom but it was banished to a museum as a ‘walking stick’,” Mr. Shah said. Amid the war of words between the BJP and the Congress over Sunday’s inauguration of the new Parliament building, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi will install the sceptre, Mr. Shah said the Opposition party needed to reflect on its behaviour.

“Now, Congress has heaped another shameful insult. The Thiruvavaduthurai Adheenam, a holy Shaivite math, itself spoke about the importance of Sengol at the time of India’s freedom. Congress is calling the Adheenam’s history as ‘bogus’,” the home minister said.

BJP national general secretary B.L. Santhosh also lambasted the Congress, saying that the sins committed by the party and its leadership post-Independence would keep haunting them for years to come. “Sacred Sengol was marked as walking stick and kept at Prayagraj museum. Nehru and his descendants have ultimate hatred for anything that is part of Indian culture,” he said.

Mr. Santhosh also asked the Dravidian parties of Tamil Nadu whether they would “honour or boycott” the tradition. “This May 28 will be a testing time for Dravidian parties of Tamil Nadu. A proud symbol of heritage, a ‘Dharma Dhanda’ which has its roots in the Chola era, will be installed in Parliament by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Will they honour Chola tradition or boycott?” he asked.

Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal took to Twitter to criticise the Opposition party, saying that unlike the dynasty that demeaned Sengol by displaying it as one person’s “walking stick”, Mr. Modi was restoring its glory by giving it a pride of place in the new Parliament building.

On boycott

Listing the political parties that are boycotting the inauguration event, BJP national president J.P. Nadda said that the common connection between them was that they were “dynasty-run parties” whose monarchic methods were at loggerheads with the principles of republicanism and democracy in the Constitution.

The Hindu

(national)

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