The BJP sparked a new controversy by questioning a video showing Rahul Gandhi interacting with Father George Ponnaiah during his Bharat Jodo Yatra. “This man was arrested for his Hindu hatred earlier—he also said ‘I wear shoes because impurities of Bharat Mata should not contaminate us’. Bharat Jodo with Bharat Todo icons?” BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawala tweeted, posting the video of the interaction.
Rahul Gandhi can be seen in the video asking whether Jesus Christ was the true God or just a manifestation of God. Faher George Ponnaiah said, “He is a real God revealed as a human person. Not like Shakti,” Faher George Ponnaiah said.
On September 7, the Bharat Jodo Yatra set out from Kanyakumari under criticism from the BJP, who questioned the necessity of the march and urged the Congress to first unify the party. Before Saturday’s accusation based on the George Ponnaiah video, the containers for the Congress officials’ overnight stays and their Burberry t-shirts had already become a point of dispute between the BJP and the Congress.
For his alleged remarks against Prime Minister Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and other DMK politicians, Father George Ponnaiah, a Catholic priest, was detained in 2021.
Jairam Ramesh tweeted in response to the arguments that those who killed Mahatma Gandhi and murdered people like Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pandare, MM Kalburgi, and Gauri Lankesh are raising doubts. Such attempts to undermine the spirit of the Bharat Jodo Yatra will fail miserably, tweeted Jairam Ramesh. “What a morbid joke!
“An atrocious tweet from the BJP hate factory is doing the rounds. It bears no relation whatsoever to what is recorded in the audio. This is typical BJP mischief that has become more desperate after the successful launch of #BharatJodoYatra which is evoking such a huge response,” Jairam Ramesh added.