Pushkar priest says Rahul Gandhi is a Kashmiri Brahmin of Dattatreya gotra

India वोट Kar | November 28, 2018

Rahul Gandhi A Kashmiri Brahmin, Have Record Of Ancestry, Claims Priest

A priest at a temple beside Pushkar lake in Rajasthan has said that Congress president Rahul Gandhi is a Kashmiri Brahmin whose gotra is Dattatreya. The claim followed Gandhi’s temple visit on Monday while campaigning for the state’s December 7 election.

The question from the BJP

The issue had been raised the previous month by BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra. After the Congress described Gandhi as a “janeu-dhari Brahmin” to explain his temple visits in states going to the polls, Patra, speaking in Madhya Pradesh, asked what kind of sacred-thread wearer Gandhi was and what his gotra was.

What the priest said

According to the priest, Gandhi offered prayers at the ghat and stated that his gotra was Dattatreya. The priest explained that the Dattatreya are Kauls, and that Kauls are Kashmiri Brahmins.

He said several members of the family had prayed at the same ghat, among them Jawaharlal Nehru, Motilal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Sanjay Gandhi and Maneka Gandhi. He also claimed to possess old records of the family’s lineage, and said his own ancestors had conducted special prayers at Pushkar Sarovar for Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister and Gandhi’s great-grandfather, and for his father Motilal Nehru.

Temple visits and criticism

Gandhi also visited the Ajmer shrine before going on to a series of election rallies. The BJP has criticised such religious stops as soft Hindutva. Responding to criticism of his visit to the Somnath temple the previous year, Gandhi had said he was a devotee of Shiva and believed in truth, whatever the BJP might say.

Results of the state election were due on December 11 2018.