Amit Shah should amend constitution to qualify as Hindu: JDU leader Pavan Varma's swipe at BJP

NEW DELHI: Janata Dal (United) leader Pavan Varma on Sunday took a swipe at Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and chief Amit Shah over Rahul Gandhi's temple entry row.

“Amit Shah and BJP should bring an amendment to the constitution which says in order to qualify to be a Hindu, every claimant must visit temples at this frequency per day, per week, per month, per year. Only then will Mr Amit Shah certify if one is a Hindu or not,” said Varma.

Last month, controversy erupted after the Congress vice president's name was allegedly listed as a non-Hindu visitor during his visit to Gujarat's Somnath Temple. Party media coordinator Manoj Tyagi allegedly entered names of Rahul Gandhi and Congress MP Ahmed Patel in the register for non-Hindus.

Later, a tweet by Congress said, “Clarification: There is only one visitor's book at Somnath Temple that was signed by Congress VP Rahul Gandhi. Any other image being circulated is fabricated. Desperate times call for desperate measures?”

Varma has often launched veiled attack on Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar and his decision to side with BJP. 

Responding to a question at the Times LitFest about the reasons that led the JD-U to ally again with the BJP in Bihar, Varma, in a plain one line response, said: "It was Nitish Kumar`s decision." 

"I don`t know why he made that decision," he later added.

Suddenly snapping ties with the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress with which his JD-U had fought the last assembly elections, Nitish Kumar had led his JD-U to again align with the BJP at a crucial juncture before the presidential elections. Many from the party, including veteran leader Sharad Yadav, had openly protested against the decision.