New Delhi, June 20 (IBNS): Rashtriya Seva Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat on Wednesday slammed Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over his PM remark and said India should have a Prime Minister who will 'propound' Hindutva.
Kumar had said Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) should name a secular Prime Minister candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
Bhagwat told reporters: “The country should have a Prime Minister who propounds Hindutva."
He said Kumar is 'scared' to call himself a Hindu.
“Nitish Kumar is scared to call himself a Hindu”, Bhagwat said.
Bhagwat lent his support to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi by slamming Kumar on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, BJP leader Balbir Punj also opposed Kumar's remarks and said the party has not given authority to anybody to give certificates of secularism to 'individual leaders in the BJP'.
"I want to make it clear that we have not given authority to anybody to give certificates of secularism to individual leaders in the BJP," Punj said on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Janata Dal (United) MP Sabir Ali hinted a news channel that if the BJP elected Modi as a candidate for the post of the Prime Minister, the party will quit the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
"He is from the BJP. We have no right to support Narendra Modi. But we are saying if he will be promoted we will back out," Ali told CNN-IBN.
Kumar on Tuesday created a new embarrassment for the BJP as he said the BJP must name their Prime Ministerial candidate for 2014.
His move seemed to be aimed at the growing influence of Modi with whom he exchanged several barbs in the past.
In an interview to The Economic Times, Kumar said the voters must know who the BJP is selecting in the general elections in 2014 as the PM candidate.
"The leader of the coalition should have secular credentials and liberal frame of mind," he said, reminding of Modi's image after the 2002 Gujarati riots in which the Muslims were killed.
"It should be someone who has absolute faith in democratic values. In a multi-religious and multi-lingual country like ours, the leader should not have rough edges in his personality," he told the financial daily.