The slogan of nationalism by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is fake because they link that with a majoritarian view based on religion, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat has said.
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Opening a ‘Meet for resistance against the attacks on Dalits, minorities, and women’ here on Sunday, she said that during the freedom struggle, the BJP’s ancestors were playing the game of “divide and rule” of the British.
“These people, [V.D.]Savarkar, [K.B.] Hedgewar, [M.S.]Golwalkar, the icons of the BJP, were then members of the Hindu Mahasabha, the creators of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). We look at their ideology and understand their roots. It is necessary to look at this because today the BJP, the RSS, and the Sangh Parivar are operating under the cloak and mask of nationalism,” she said.
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Ms. Karat pointed out that Hindutva nationalism was dangerous for the country because their contention was that only those who believe in Hindutva could be nationalistic or patriotic. “This deliberate distortion of history and hijacking of the issues of patriotism go against everything that the Indian constitution stands for,” she said.
Ms. Karat said it was the members of the newly formed Communist Party of India who circulated a manifesto for complete Independence at the 1921 session of the Congress in Ahmedabad. The then Congress leadership had felt it was impractical. It was Moulana Hasrat Mohani, inspired by socialist ideals, who moved the resolution for complete independence.
In all the first five sedition cases, called the Peshawar conspiracy case, almost all accused happened to belong to the Muslim community. The first person to be arrested was Mohammed Akbar, who was locked up in jail. “What were the BJP icons doing then? Their slogan was a Hindu Rashtra, to Hinduise politics, and to militarise Hinduism. It was Savarkar who first propounded the two-nation theory. It was repeated by Mohammed Ali Jinnah,” she added. K.T. Jaleel, Thottathil Raveendran, and Kanathil Jameela, MLAs, and Beena Philip, Kozhikode Mayor, were among those who were present. The event was organised by the Kozhikode-based Keluettan Centre for Study and Research.