New Delhi: Rajendra Pal Gautam, Social Welfare minister of Delhi, resigned from chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s cabinet on Sunday.
Gautam had been in the eye of a storm after attending a ‘conversion’ event.
A video, which emerged recently, showed Gautam at an event where 10,000 people converted to Buddhism. The crowd took the 22 vows of BR Ambedkar, and affirmed that they won’t pray to Hindu gods or goddesses.
BJP didn’t waste the opportunity to slam the Kejriwal-headed Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government, saying that they “hated” Hindus.
BJP had been demanding Gautam’s resignation since the video surfaced.
Gautam had defended himself, saying that the Constitution gave him the right to practise his religion. He also apologized to the people who were hurt, and described BJP’s stand as propaganda.
But he finally gave in.
“I had joined the programme at Ambedkar Bhawan on October 5 in my personal capacity. It had nothing to do with the AAP or my being a minister. Babasaheb’s 22 vows were also printed in the 17th volume of Ambedkar: Writings and Speeches by former BJP minister Thawar Chand Gehlot. These are repeated across the country… BJP is using these for dirty politics and I am resigning from my post as a minister because of that,” Gautam wrote in his resignation letter.
