Karnataka BJP MLA’s ‘Muslim or Christian’ jab at Rahul Gandhi stirs row

Karnataka BJP MLA Basangouda Patil Yatnal stoked a fresh controversy by raising questions over Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi’s caste and the community he belongs to, questioning whether he is a Muslim or a Christian.
The BJP MLA from the state’s Bijapur City Assembly Constituency called for an investigation to ascertain the Congress leader’s true lineage.
“Today, Rahul Gandhi goes to America and makes anti-national statements. He wants to conduct a caste survey, but he doesn’t even know which caste he was born into. He doesn’t know if he was born to Muslims or Christians. That should be investigated”, Patil said.
“If he claims to be a Brahmin, which Brahmin does he belong to? Is he a Brahmin who wears the Janivara (religious sacred thread)? What kind of Brahmin is he?, Patil questioned and went on to say that the Congress MP is like a ‘country pistol’. “In India, you have country pistols, and Rahul Gandhi is like a country pistol, nothing will prosper because of him”, he added.
Rahul Gandhi has been a staunch supporter of a nationwide caste census, a promise which was also included in the Congress’s manifesto in the Lok Sabha elections this year.
During campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections, Rahul Gandhi promised to conduct a nationwide socio-economic caste census to enumerate the castes, sub-castes and their socio-economic conditions, if the party was voted to power.
During the Parliament’s Monsoon session in July, BJP MP Anurag Thakur had also taken a veiled jibe at the Congress and Rahul Gandhi over the issue of caste census. The BJP leader from Himachal Pradesh had said “The one whose caste is not known is talking about the census”.
Thakur’s speech in the Lok Sabha invited widespread criticism from the alliance partners of the INDIA bloc.
Meanwhile, the statement from Patil is the latest one in the series of controversial remarks the BJP leader is known for.
In December 2023, Patil made statements in which he said that Jawaharlal Nehru was not the first Prime Minister of India, Subhash Chandra Bose was.
In August last year, he said the ruling Congress government would collapse within 6-7 months. He said the Congress’s potential collapse would be due to infighting and claimed that the BJP would raise the issue of corruption in the state.
Earlier that year, Basangouda Patil Yatnal compared Muslims to Tipu Sultan, 18th Century ruler of Mysore, and asked people not to cast a vote for a Muslim leader.