India will meet same fate as Pakistan if BJP tries to turn country into 'Hindu Rashtra': Gehlot

Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot said the Gujarat BJP has given "horse trading model" to the country

Rajasthan Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Ashok Gehlot on August 18 cautioned that India would meet the same fate as that of Pakistan if the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) tries to turn the country into a 'Hindu Rashtra'.

The Congress' senior observer for the Gujarat Assembly elections also accused the BJP of fighting and winning elections only on the issue of religion.

Mr. Gehlot has been on a two-day visit to the BJP-ruled Gujarat from Wednesday to hold meetings with party leaders to review their preparedness for the upcoming Assembly polls, expected to be held in December this year.

Talking to reporters on the last day of his visit, Mr. Gehlot said, "Many people, such as activists and journalists, have been jailed by the BJP across the country. They are fascists, who are winning elections only on the issue of religion. Otherwise, BJP does not have any ideology, policy or governance model."

He cautioned that India would meet the same fate as Pakistan if the BJP tries to turn the country into a 'Hindu Rashtra'.

"Politics based on religion is the easiest of all and even Adolf Hitler indulged in it," he said, while accusing the BJP of misguiding people in the name of "Gujarat model".

Mr. Gehlot, who was in charge of the Gujarat Congress in 2017, said, "We were very close to winning the 2017 Assembly elections. But unfortunately, the way PM Modi pitched himself and acted like a Bollywood actor during the campaign, we lost. To gain sympathy, he even distorted Congress leader Mani Shakar Aiyar's statement during the campaign and claimed that Aiyar called him a 'neech aadmi' [lowly person]."