Modi moving away from his promises: Digvijay

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who came to power on the promise of development, is now busy pushing the “hidden agenda” of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaving the promises aside, Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh has said.

Mr. Singh was inaugurating a seminar on ‘Cultural nationalism’ organised by the Muslim Educational Society (MES) as part of the valedictory summit of the year-long golden Jubilee celebrations of the society here on Friday.

Mr. Singh said the identity of India was facing “serious threats” from regressive forces supported by the government. “Even the very idea of cultural nationalism smacks of fascism, which the country has to be wary of,” he said.

Stating that a country such as India could never deny freedom for its diverse people to choose their faith and follow their traditions, the Congress leader said that cultural and religious fundamentalism would only take the country backward.

“Developments such as ‘Ghar Vapsi ’ and validations of fantastic stories from the past as “facts” by certain sections in the scientific communities are traits of a backward march,” he said.

Urging people to face the challenges from the regressive forces peacefully and compassionately, Mr. Singh said that cultural nationalism was neither religious nor Indian as was claimed by the Sangh Parivar.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) MP from Bengal Mohammed Salim, who spoke on the occasion, said that the cultural nationalism campaign, earlier undertaken by the Sangh Parivar as an undercover activity, had now become more explicit and without any cover. MES State president Fazal Gafoor presided over the function.

MES leaders T.M. Zakir Hussain, journalist O. Abdulla and leaders from different political parties spoke on the occasion.