Digvijay takes a dig at Gadkari for calling him 'chillar neta'

BHOPAL: Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh today took a dig at Nitin Gadkari for calling him a 'chillar neta', saying that the BJP president was a 'billionaire' in his view.

"I was Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister for 10 long years and Gadkari who has never won an election in his life was minister for only one term in Maharashtra," he told PTI here.

Singh said that despite being in politics for a long time, he was still in Gadkari's eyes a "chillar neta" (petty leader) but for him the BJP chief was a "billionaire".

The Congress leader, who recently made controversial statements against the RSS, said there was no point in criticising him as whatever he had said had proved to be true.

"All my critics should understand that whatever I had said about the involvement of the members of the Sangh Pariwar has been proved to be correct," Singh said.

Noting that an impression has been "wrongly" gaining ground that he was against Hindus, Singh said there was no truth in the statement. "I am a Hindu and my wife and kids are all Hindus, so it would be wrong to say that I will ever be against Hindus," he said.

The Congress leader said he had only talked about those Hindus who had links with the RSS and who were found involved in terrorist activities.

Singh had recently triggered a controversy by claiming that slain Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare had spoken to him about threats from radical right-wing groups before his death in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack.

After the confession (rpt confession) by Swami Aseemanand, allegedly involved in Samjhauta Express blast, before a magistrate, Singh said it was clear that RSS and BJP were sheltering people involved in terrorist activities.