'Quest for dominance of Hindi, Hindutva, Hindustan ... ': Shashi Tharoor slams BJP

NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Thursday targeted the BJP and claimed that quest for dominance of 'Hindi, Hindutva, Hindustan' is the most dangerous threat to foundations of our plural consciousness. The former Union minister also dismissed saffron party's claim of strong performance in south India in Lok Sabha polls and called it a product of BJP's "propaganda mill."

Tharoor, who is seeking re-election for fourth term from Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram, said "The BJP's politicisation of religion went too far when the PM performed pran pratishtha at Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, for which he is clearly not qualified."


"As a lifelong devotee of Ram, whose picture always adorns a central place in the puja room at my home, I have every right to ask why I should surrender my Ram to the BJP. Who gave the copyright on Lord Ram to the BJP?" Tharoor said in an interview to news agency PTI.

The Congress leader is locked in a triangular contest with BJP leader and Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who is making his Lok Sabha debut, and CPI's Pannyan Raveendran, who had won the elections from the constituency in 2005.


In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Tharoor had polled 41.15% of votes to register victory in a three-cornered contest. BJP came second with 31.26% of votes and the CPI with 25.57% of votes was at the third position.

In 2014, Tharoor's margin of victory over the BJP was just a little over 15,000 votes. The Congress leader polled 34.09% of votes against BJP candidate's 32.32%. The CPI with 28.5% of votes was at third position.



'BJP's popular narratives in north do not pass muster in south'

On whether it was a make or break election for secularism, the Congress leader said, "No, because the forces of national unity have always prevailed over earlier challenges to India's essential secularism." The Congress leader stressed that Indian secularism is intertwined in the DNA of the country's culture and it will not disappear so easily. Tharoor, however, said this Lok Sabha election is a vital phase in the ongoing battle for India's soul.

Tharoor claimed that BJP's narratives in the north such as communalism, religious division and nativist social cleavages, do not pass muster in the south. He took a swipe at BJP's aggressive southern pitch and said for a party that claims to be focused on 'vikas (development), the region that actually enjoys the highest 'vikas' in real terms is the least receptive to the BJP's agenda.


The voters here know the importance of substantive issues -- unemployment, price rise and communal hatred being key among them -- and they realise those are the responsibilities of the Union government, Tharoor said. People elect a government to look after their welfare, not just their religion, and if they vote in their self-interest they will vote the BJP out of office, he added.



'They made 3 promises to Kerala, but broke all of them'
Tharoor claimed BJP has literally nothing to point to in Kerala in their ten years of rule, apart from national schemes that are applicable anywhere.

"They made three promises to the state and broke all of them. They promised Kerala an AIIMS; no AIIMS has come. Their AYUSH minister, in response to me, promised us a National University of Ayurveda; they established it in Gujarat instead. In their Budget of 2015-16, they explicitly accepted my request to upgrade the National Institute of Speech and Hearing in Thiruvananthapuram to a National University for Disability Studies. Despite this solemn commitment in Parliament, when they established such a University, they decided to do so in the northeast," Tharoor said.


"After three broken promises', a batting average of zero, which is apparently their idea of 'exemplary' performance'? why would any Keralite trust any promise by the BJP?" the Congress leader said.


'Why Modi's BJP has little to no appeal in south?

Tharoor said investor interest in India is dictated, in many ways, by the openness of a society, education and literacy levels and maintenance of social harmony, in all of which the south scores highly.

"Our society has been shaped in an environment where decades of social reforms have led to a flowering of civic consciousness among followers of the three major religions: Hinduism, Islam and Christianity," Tharoor said.

"Our history has also been different: for instance, Kerala has welcomed followers of every faith here for millennia, and all have come in peace and not by the sword. So the narratives that the BJP harps on in the North - communalism, religious division, chips on the shoulder about history, nativist social cleavages - don't pass muster here," he added.


'BJP dividing country'

Tharoor rejected BJP's charge against opposition of creating a north-south divide and said "if anyone has been dividing the country on communal, linguistic or regional issues, including the so-called north-south divide, it is the BJP."

"Their arrogation of more funds to the Union government and starving states ruled by non-BJP parties has created major concerns. If this government is somehow voted to power again, which I do not expect, there are real fears of how they will handle the south after the 91st Amendment lapses in 2026, and they initiate their project of increasing Lok Sabha seats for Hindi heartland," he said.

"Do they have a sensible policy response when the south questions them on whether it is being punished for doing a good job in human development and family planning? In their quest for absolute power, will they give themselves a two-thirds majority by gerrymandering constituencies, and leave the south feeling disempowered?" he said.

(With inputs from PTI)

03:20

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