Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati, the Shankaracharya of Dwaraka-Sharda Peeth, said that there was no logic in the assertion that those born in India were Hindus as he claimed it would “eliminate the basic structure of society”.

He was reacting to the statement of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat that anybody living in India was a Hindu.

“The theory that one who is born in India is Hindu has no logic behind it since it will eliminate the basic structure of society,” the Shankaracharya told reporters in Vrindavan.

A real Hindu has faith in the Vedas and Shastras, while Muslims read the Quran and Hadith and Christians follow the Bible, he said.

Addressing a gathering in Tripura earlier this week, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief said, “Muslims in India are also Hindus.”

On the Ayodhya temple dispute, the Shankaracharya said that political parties did not have the right to build a Ram temple in Ayodhya. “Only Shankaracharyas and Dharmacharyas have the right to construct a temple in Ayodhya,” he added.

The government too cannot construct a temple as India is “a secular (dharm nirpeksh) country”, he said.

On a controversy surrounding the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs) in elections, the Hindu religious leader said that he was in favour of the use of ballot papers.

If most of the political parties do not want EVMs, the Election Commission should not stick to it, he said.

He said that pollution in the Ganga and Yamuna rivers has increased manifold and worried no improvement been done.