Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy had made comments to the effect that North Indians worship Lord Rama, and South Indians are devotees of Lord Shiva.
| Photo Credit: ANI
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday (September 30, 2026) accused the Congress and Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy of seeking to divide Hindu society along regional, linguistic, caste, and gender lines, while referring to Mr. Reddy’s remarks on Lord Shiva and Lord Rama.
At a press conference, BJP MP and spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi alleged that the Congress pursued the politics of “divide Hindus for the Muslim rule”.
Countering Mr. Reddy’s comments, made at an event on Monday (September 28, 2026), he charged the Congress with wanting to divide Hindu society into South and North. “The same Telangana CM, Revanth Reddy ji, is himself saying now that ‘we are Dravidian, they are Aryans’. It is such a foolish, baseless theory, which has now been rejected throughout the world,” he said.
“They want to split us into provinces. This same Mr. Reddy had spoken about the DNA of Bihar and the DNA of Telangana. Then after that, they want to divide us on the basis of language and then caste,” he said. He alleged that the Congress’s “Smash Patriarchy” campaign only targeted Hindu society. “As soon as the Grand Mufti of Kerala says that women should be kept like necklaces in a vault, the Congress leaders who shout about smashing patriarchy suddenly fall silent,” Mr. Trivedi said.
Pointing out that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a Member of Parliament from Varanasi, the land of “Baba Vishwanath”, the BJP leader said Mr. Modi named the landing site of Chandrayaan-3’s Vikram lander “Shiv Shakti Point”.
Criticising what he described as a non-inclusive mindset, Mr. Trivedi contrasted it with what he called the Hindu tradition, “where a person can visit a temple, gurdwara, Buddhist vihara, Jain vihara, dargah, or church without ceasing to be Hindu”. He also quoted scriptures and traditions to state that Lord Shiva and Lord Rama are deeply interconnected.
“If you are such a great devotee of Shiva, should the mosque associated with Aurangzeb at Shri Kashi Vishwanath remain there or not? The court will decide. But in court, everyone presents their own position. What do you really want? Our wish is that there should be no influence of any foreign invader over any Jyotirlinga of Lord Shiva,” Mr. Trivedi said.
“It seems that the Islamic influence on the Congress, after running a government with the Muslim League, has become so deeply ingrained that they have now started viewing the Gods of Hinduism through the Semitic religions — that is, through Islamic and Christian perspectives,” he alleged.
Published – September 30, 2026 02:27 pm IST
