Gujarat elections 2017 | Gujarat is war between Ram Rajya & Rome Rajya: Virendra Singh

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday raised the issue of the letter issued by Archdiocese of Gandhinagar, Archbishop Thomas Macwan. It claimed that the appeal in the letter was akin to alleged support given by Pope to fascist regime of Benito Mussolini in Italy.

"The electoral fight in Gujarat is a war between Ram Rajya and Rome Rajya," said Virendra Singh, chief of BJP's Kisan Morcha, as he was in Capital before returning to Gujarat on campaign.

"In 1929 the Pope in Rome had made an appeal for the victory of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. In the same way Macwan urged the Christians to vote against nationalist forces. So in a way this is also a war between the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi and what dictator Mussolini stood for," Singh said.

"Our ideal is Ram Rajya which was expounded by Mahatma Gandhi in the concepts of swadeshi and village self-reliance which he tried to flesh out after independence. This very model has been taken up by Prime Minister Narendra Modi," Singh said.

Singh accused the 'Rome Rajya' to be violent and disruptive. "On the other hand, Rome Rajya is inspired by money, pistol and dynasty," Singh said in an oblique reference to the Italian origins of Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Singh alleged that the Nehru-Gandhi family was trying to implement and perpetuate Rome Rajya.