Digvijaya differs from his guru on Shani worshipping by women

VARANASI: Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh going against his guru and Shankaracharya of Jyotish and Dwarka Sharda peeths Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati, advocated for worshipping of Shani by women.
"Temple is a place of worship for all, hence there should be no gender discrimination. All whether male or female have right to offer prayer at the temple," said Singh while responding to a query regarding the controversy on prayer at the Shani temple in Shani Shingnapur in Maharstra.
Singh was on a visit to the city on Saturday. He also went to meet Shankaracharya and take his blessings at Shri Vidya Math. In a brief chat with reporters, he said that offering prayer at the temple is a matter of one's own belief.
But, contrary to his views, his guru discourages women from worshipping Shani. The seer recently said that worshiping Shani is not good for women, as Shani is a kroor (cruel) graha not a deity. Recently scores of women activists led by Bhumata Ranragini Brigade were detained while going to Shani Shingnapur temple in Ahmednagar district.
Singh also mocked at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the failure of this constituency (Varanasi) in getting a place in the list of top 20 cities to be developed as 'smart cities'. "Modiji ne UP aur Bihar ko Bharat ke nakshe se nikal diya hai" (Modi has excluded UP and Bihar from India's map), he said adding that it clearly indicates that he (Modi) will not contest the next parliamentary election from Varanasi.
He also targeted BJP for blaming Rahul Gandhi for politicizing the suicide of Rohith Vemula of Hyderabad University. The BJP through its student wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) is trying to capture the academic institution to execute its agenda, he said.
Describing the arrest of Congress MLA Ajai Rai and invoking NSA against him as a political vendetta, Singh also accused the UP government of acting on the whim of central government. "Why action was taken against Rai only, while BJP MLAs were also present at the scene," he questioned adding that it was a condemnable act. NSA was invoked against Rai after he was arrested in connection with the violence erupted on October 5 during the Anyay Pratikar Yatra.
To a query regarding BJP leader Subramanian Swamy's statement on Ram Mandir, he said that he (Swamy) know only to flare up the issue.