Former Uttarakhand chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat on Wednesday termed Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse a patriot while mocking Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for “merely” sharing the surname. “Gandhi ji was killed, that is a different issue. But as far as I have understood and read Godse, he too was a patriot. We do not agree with the killing of Gandhi ji,” the BJP leader told reporters.

Targeting the former Congress president, Rawat said merely having the Gandhi surname did not make his ideology Gandhian.

He said making a show of wearing the “janeu”, or the sacred thread, does not change Rahul Gandhi’s identity. “He just talks,” Rawat claimed, accusing Rahul Gandhi of cashing in on the Mahatma’s name.

Rawat referred to the controversial remarks made by the Congress leader in the US, and said his “efforts” will not help the party “which is soon going to be a thing of the past”.

“Rahul Gandhi is speaking out of frustration, seeing the deteriorating condition of his party. He is speaking in mental stress. The public will not accept a person going through mental stress,” he said.

On the Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav’s meeting Wednesday with Aam Aadmi Party chief, Rawat said, “There is no bigger theatrical leader in this country than Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Akhilesh Yadav wants to learn theatrics from Kejriwal.” He accused Yadav of throwing Uttar Pradesh into “goonda raj” during his term as chief minister. The SP recruited gangsters and made the mafia “respectable”, the Uttarakhand leader alleged.

He said people will again reject the SP.