New Delhi: Congress leader Shashi Tharoor took a dig at Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s holy dip in the Sangam at Prayagraj and made an immature comment about people’s clothing, saying that ‘everyone is naked in this Sangam’. 

Tharoor’s tweet came after the Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh cabinet on Tuesday met at the Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj for the first time.

“Ganga bhi swachh rakhni hain, aur paap bhi yahi dhone hain. Iss Sangam mein sab nange hain. Jai Ganga Maiya ki!" he said in a tweet with a photo of Adityanath and the entire Cabinet. (Ganga has to be kept clean, and sins also have to be washed there. In this sangam (meeting point of rivers) everyone is naked. Hail Goddess Ganga!)

Union minister Smriti Irani slammed Tharoor on his 'religious slur' and asked how can janeu dhari Congress president Rahul Gandhi allow an attack on Hindu beliefs.

"For Shashi Tharoor to make a statement which tantamounts to a religious slur. Question needs to be asked of Rahul Gandhi who strategically wears a ‘Jenau’ only when there are polls, as to why he has allowed this attack on beliefs of millions of Hindus across the world," Irani said.

UP minister Siddharth Nath Singh, reacting to Tharoor’s comment said, “How will he understand the importance of Kumbh? The atmosphere he’s in, the culture he has been brought up in, don’t understand this. You people have committed a lot of misdeeds, take a holy dip in Kumbh and you might be able to repent for your sins.”

Here is how Twitter reacted
 

This was the first time the UP cabinet held an official meeting outside Lucknow. After the cabinet meeting, the chief minister announced a massive Rs. 36,000 crore Ganga expressway project to connect western Uttar Pradesh's Meerut to Prayagraj. Yogi Adityanath claimed it would be the world's longest expressway at about 600 km.