Kochi: The prime minister's directive to all ministries to hold sessions on RSS ideologue Deendayal Upadhyay's philosophy is a dangerous trend, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has said.
He was responding to journalist Shekhar Gupta's query on whether he had exaggerated the statement that the BJP would make India a Hindu Pakistan, at the Manorama News Freedom Conclave 2018.
Taking a dig at inaugural speaker and union minister Rajyavarthan Singh Rathore, Tharoor said the union government was smothering even legitimate voices of concern.
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The session 'Free nation, unfree citizen?' saw passionate arguments as 'referee' Shekhar Gupta' said a red card was required to keep the Malayalis - Tharoor and union minister of state Alphons Kannanthanam' from engaging in a fierce dual.
Tharoor said freedom was a three-centered pivot which encompassed the questions like 'of, to and from.'
The conflation of a central idea as legitimate was a risk that the country faced, he said.
On being asked why he wanted to write books like 'Why I am a Hindu,' Tharoor said he wanted to tell the people and the BJP that the saffron party had no monopoly over Hinduism.
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Tearing into statements by Tharoor, Kannanthanam said the Congress and the critics of the BJP were denying the 'numerics.' “Numbers of development were there for all to see,” he said.
Stating that the book on 'being Hindu' was a political statement, Kannanthanam said Tharoor was becoming a seasoned politician. He had come up with a book at 'the right time', hinting at general elections slated for next year.
Tharoor said the prime minister was pursuing a Hindutva ideology, which the RSS ideologues had propounded and propagated.
Denying this, Kananthanam said the Congress leader should focus more on the development that is being brought in.
As he denied the charge of PM's Hindutva push, Tharoor wanted a reiteration of it.
Drawing the country's attention to the 'brutalization' in Kashmir, CPM leader Yousuf Tarigami said no discussion should be brought down to the level of a Hindu-Muslim conflict.
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