The chief spokesperson of the BJP Telangana unit, K. Krishna Saagar Rao, in a press release stated, "Jitendra Awhad's insulting remarks on funeral practices of Hindus is extremely derogatory & disrespectful to Hindus across the nation. To appease Muslims, NCP leader & state minister has descended to a new low, to deride and insult Hindu rituals."
Rao also asked the top leadership of the NCP if they supported the statement made by their minister. "BJP wants to know, if Sharad Pawar endorses this deviant statement made by his party leader? Has NCP become an anti-Hindu party?" he said.
The BJP has demanded that Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray clarify on his minister's "unwarranted and unprovoked insinuation by Minister Jitendra Awhad."
On Monday, while addressing a public gathering in Pune, the NCP leader and Maharashtra Housing Minister Jitendra Awhad stirred controversy by saying that Muslims could tell where their grandfather were buried but Hindus would not be able to tell the place where the cremation of their ancestors was performed.
"I want to ask my Hindu brothers, sitting here, where your grandfather's last rites took place? Muslims can tell where the graveyard is," adding, "I want to ask the people at throne in Delhi, will you ask me proof of my being Indian? When your father was licking boots of British, my father was embracing the death and was raising slogans inquilab zindabad."
( With inputs from IANS )