The main opposition party in the Indian state of Uttarkhand has slammed newly sworn-in State Chief Tirath Singh Rawat for comparing Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Lord Rama, who is worshiped by millions of Hindus.
Senior Congress leader and former Uttarakhand state chief Harish Rawat took to Twitter and described it as sycophancy while adding that equating Lord Rama to any human being was unacceptable.
"This is the height of sycophancy where one compares a human to a God. Praising your leader is understandable but degrading our Gods by placing them on par with any human being is not right. I hope the new CM understands this", he said.
#प्रधानमंत्री जी को ˈग्लैमराइज़् करना स्वभाविक है और यदि #भाजपा के #मुख्यमंत्री जिनकी नई-नई नौकरी लगी है, वो प्रशंसा में कुछ कदम आगे बढ़ जाएं वो भी सम्य हो सकता है, लेकिन आप किसी मानव की भगवान राम, कृष्ण जी से यदि तुलना करेंगे, यह कहेंगे कि जैसे उनकी पूजा होती है,..1/2 pic.twitter.com/qzf3ynJClA
— Harish Rawat (@harishrawatcmuk) March 15, 2021
Another Congress leader Sumit Hridayesh said: "Comparing Lord Rama with the PM is an insult to God. The CM should apologise for this statement".
The criticism came after State Chief Tirath Singh Rawat on Sunday said: "Today leaders of different countries line up to get their pictures clicked with the prime minister. This is different from earlier times when no world leader cared about our head of state. The situation has changed now because of our Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This is a new India led by him".
He further said that just like "Lord Rama had done good work for our society and that is the reason people started considering him as God, similarly, in future, the same thing will happen with our beloved prime minister too".
On 10 March, BJP parliamentarian Tirath Singh Rawat was made the 9th State Chief of Uttarakhand. On 12 March, a total of 11 ministers took the oath and four new faces were inducted into the state cabinet.
