Religion should be separate from political power, state shouldn't encourage any religion: Udit Raj

Asserting that religion should be separate from political power, Congress leader Udit Raj on Thursday said that the state should neither encourage nor discourage any religion.

Udit Raj's response comes after he tweeted that no religious teachings and rituals should be funded by the government and cited the expense incurred by the Uttar Pradesh government on orgsing the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad as an example. However, he later deleted the tweet.

When asked about his tweet, Raj told , "Religion should be separate from political power and the state should not interfere, encourage or discourage any religion. In this context, I had cited the example of Kumbh fair expenditure as it was huge."

He asked why should there be any controversy, heart-burning, conflict or communal disturbance over one religion being favoured by the government over another. "So, let us stop for all," Unit Raj said.

"Earlier, there was a lot of corruption and rebellion, then modern democracy evolved and got completely separated from religion. Why should there be any controversy, heart-burning, conflict or communal disturbance that one religion is favoured and the other isn't? So, let us stop for all," he said.

Earlier, Udit Raj had tweeted, "No religious teachings and rituals to be funded by the Govt. The state doesn't have its own religion. UP govt spent 4,200 crore in orgsing the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad and that too was wrong."

( With inputs from ANI )