Union Minister Uma Bharti today hit back at former Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh for his remarks that the NDA government is trying to make Ganga cleaning effort a “Hindutva project”, saying Congress should spare the river from communal politics.
“People involved with all rituals and Pujas have been associated with Ganga project (Ganga Samgra Abhiyan). The problem is with the mentality of some politicians in our country as they do not understand the meaning of ‘Sabhi Puja Vidhi’,” the Union Water Resources Minister told reporters on the sidelines of Ganga Manthan, the first national dialogue on river, here.
“We never quote any religious community by its name. When we say ‘Sabhi Puja Vidhi’, they do not understand what we are saying. I pity people who have such understanding,” she added.
“Whoever had made this condemnable remark, I wont name him, he had done a very cheap politics and I will not answer on this subject,” Bharti said, without naming Ramesh.
Earlier, addressing the gathering at the valedictory session of the Ganga Manthan, she said that Congress President Sonia Gandhi should “spare Ganga River from her party’s communal politics.”
“The person who was referred in the article, I met him in Rajya Sabha and told him that you have to spare Ganga otherwise I would have to openly complain to your leader that you have tried to communalise the Ganga,” she said.
“We do not fake secularism. We believe in the true sense of secularism,” she said.
Ramesh had accused the NDA government of turning the programme to clean Ganga as a “Hindutva project” by attempting to polarise politics through the initiative on the holy river.
“Don’t look it as a Hindutva project. This is not a Hindutva project. This is a national project. Don’t try to polarise politics through Ganga cleaning,” Ramesh had said.
The former Environment Minister had said the government’s Ganga Mission programme should be a people’s programme and “we must involve society”.