Chandigarh: Slamming Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi for comparing the Congress party symbol 'Hand' with the hands of Guru Nanak, Punjab's ruling Shiromani Akali Dal on Wednesday described the analogy as "shocking in the extreme and unpardonable".
Former Union Minister and senior Akali leader Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa lamented that Rahul chose to compare the "killer hand of the Congress party and the holiest image of Guru Nanak Dev's hand of benevolence" in his speech at a Congress convention at Talkatora Stadium in New Delhi on Wednesday.
"Rahul Gandhi's speech had grievously hurt the religious sentiments of the devout believers and followers of Guru Nanak Dev Ji the world over," Dhindsa said.
Calling upon Congress leaders, including Amarinder Singh to "express their strongest disapproval of Rahul Gandhi's sacrilegious statement", Dhindsa said: "This is the most horrendous comparison which no one in his senses would ever dare to draw."
Citing the Congress election symbol the 'Hand', Gandhi said, "The Congress symbol is in Lord Shiva's picture. The gods in every religion are showing the Congress symbol."
"When I see the image of Guru Nanak Dev ji, I see the Congress symbol, 'Hand', in his hand," Rahul said.
Reacting angrily, Dhindsa said: "Has he lost his mind, really? Was he even in his senses when he made that most shocking speech? It is too shocking to even believe that Rahul Gandhi actually compared the bloody hand of his party with the divine hand of Guru Nanak Sahib."
"Rahul should also have remembered that the Congress hand is spattered with the blood of thousands of innocent Sikhs who follow the teachings of the great Guru and dedicate their lives to his great legacy. Does he know how Guru Sahib had actually shown blood dripping from the food offered to him by the tyrant Malik Bhago. The same is true of the Congress symbol of 'Hand'," Dhindsa said.
He said that "it was beyond anybody's wildest imagination that the Congress party and its leaders would once again indulge in such outrageous acts of disrespect to our great gurus and their legacy."
"All Sikhs in the Congress party should openly declare their opposition to this comparison. They must dissociate themselves from this remark and must demonstrate that their first allegiance is to the great Gurus and not to the Gandhi family or its scion, Rahul," Dhindsa said.
He said that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders had earlier compared the Sikh holy book, Guru Granth Sahib, with their party manifesto and had even put the AAP party symbol broom along the sacred image of the holiest of Sikh shrines, Harmandir Sahib.
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