Goa Cooperation Minister Deepak Dhavalikar made the comments in the state Assembly.
Goa minister Deepak Dhavalikar has courted controversy with his comment that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will help develop India into a Hindu nation. (
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"If we all support it and we stand by Narendra Modi systematically, then I feel a Hindu Rashtra will be established," Mr Dhavalikar said in the state assembly today on a motion congratulating Mr Modi on BJP's victory in the national election. He repeated it to the media later. (
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Deepak Dhavalikar, 56, is the State Cooperation Minister and a member of BJP's ally Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party.
The BJP distanced itself from the comment. "Might be his personal view, BJP blvs in Constitution, it doesnt give imp to 1 religion over other," the party's spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy said in a tweet. (
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Days ago, Mr Dhavalikar's brother Sudin Dhavalikar, the state's public works department minister, had sparked a row when he said bikinis should be banned on beaches and girls going to pubs in short dresses is against Indian culture. (
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"Young girls going to pubs in short dresses does not fit in our culture. What will happen to our Goan culture if we allow this? Scantily-dressed girls visiting pubs project a wrong culture and this should be stopped," he had said. (
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Sudin Dhavalikar later backtracked after anger and condemnation across the country.
Deepak Dhavalikar's comment jabs the BJP at a time it has been embarrassed by another ally, the Shiv Sena. The party has not apologized for its parliamentarian Rajan Vichare, who was caught on camera forcing a
roti into the mouth of a Maharashtra Sadan catering staffer on a Ramzan fast.