'Declare India a Hindu Rashtra', after Ravi Kishan another BJP MP Gopal Narayan vouches for the move

After BJP MP Ravi Kishan, another Rajya Sabha MP from the party on Wednesday put forth the demand that India should be declared as a 'Hindu Rashtra'.

"There is no confusion that India is a Hindu country because of the partition of India-Pakistan on the basis of religion. The Muslims went to Pakistan, i.e. East Pakistan and West Pakistan which is called Pakistan and Bangladesh respectively today. The remaining population stayed back in Hindustan which means Hindu," BJP MP Gopal Narayan Singh told ANI here.

"Constitutionally India is still not declared as a Hindu Rashtra and efforts need to begin to declare it as one," he added.

Stating that India would have been declared a 'Hindu Rashtra' had the 'secular' word not been added in the Constitution, he said, "This is not just my or my party's desire but also the wish of the citizens of the country to declare it a Hindu nation," Singh further stated.

Congress MP Pradip Bhattacharya, meanwhile, refuted the demands for a 'Hindu Rashtra' by stating, "How can India can become a Hindu Nation? Our Constitution does not allow it as it is against its Preamble. All Hindus, Muslims, and others will live here. What Ravi Kishanji has said is absolutely wrong, I request him to go ahead and read the Preamble of the Constitution."

Earlier today, Kishan had said that India is a 'Hindu Rashtra' since the community accounts for about 100 crore of the total population.

"The population of Hindus is 100 crore. So obviously India is a Hindu Rashtra. There are so many Muslim and Christian countries. It is amazing that we have a country called 'Bharat' to keep alive our culture," the lawmaker told ANI.

"If there can be Muslim and Christian countries, why can't there be a Hindu country," he asked while adding the opposition parties have gone mad over the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.