Venkaiah defends Bhagwat’s remark

It has become a fad to create controversies around ‘Hindu’ word

Hyderabad: Amid raging debate on RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's remarks, Union Minister and senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday slammed attempts to create controversies whenever there is a reference to the word "Hindu".

He was speaking at the closing ceremony of year-long CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) 70th anniversary celebrations.

Recalling India’s history of being home to many cultures and religions accepting many religions, Naidu said some people try to make controversies out of nothing. “The very moment you utter the word Hindu, they say (question) what is this Hindu?" Naidu said.

Naidu said, “Hindu is a not a religious concept, it is a cultural identity. India is a Hindu nation and Hindutva is its identity. If Hindu was a religion then there would not have been a newspaper named the Hindu or organisations like Hindustan Machine Tools and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.” He said, he could give innumerable such names which have been in India’s tradition.

These names were not new and not given by Narendra Modi or Venkaiah Naidu or somebody. “On August 15, what do you say 'Jai Hind'; does it mean to say Hinduon ko Jai aur bakio ko nahi. Aisa hai kya?" (Does ‘Jai Hind’ means success to only Hindus and not others?) Naidu said.