By IANS,
New Delhi : Gandhi scion Varun Gandhi found himself isolated in the Sangh parivar Tuesday with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) going along with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on the controversy over his inflammatory campaign speeches.
“We have not seen the statement. We are all in Nagpur now. Whatever the BJP has said is fine,” RSS spokesperson Ram Madhav told IANS over the phone from Nagpur.
While addressing an election meeting March 6, Varun Gandhi, who is a BJP candidate in Uttar Pradesh’s Pilibhit constituency, allegedly said: “If somebody lifts a hand against Hindus, or thinks they are weak, there is nobody behind them, then I swear on the (Bhagvad) Gita that I will cut off that hand.”
Though Varun Gandhi has said the tape was doctored, BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain said he should apologise for his hate-Muslim remarks that go against the party’s credo of “harmony and unity”.
“We are of the strong belief that Varun Gandhi should apologise. The BJP dissociates itself from his remarks,” Shahnawaz Hussain, who is also the party’s spokesperson in parliament, told reporters here.
“This (Gandhi’s remarks) is not what the party stands for,” Hussain asserted, adding that the party would consider action against him after seeing the tapes of his speeches.