BJP changed meaning of secularism

​Hyderabad: AICC General Secretary Digvijaya Singh on Wednesday said the ruling BJP has "changed the meaning of secularism" and was taking up issues convenient to its political agenda.

• Bharatiya Janata Party has been dividing people on communal lines, AICC General Secretary Digvijaya Singh says
• Those who oppose the ruling party at the Centre are termed anti-national and those who support it are called nationalists, he contends

Addressing a gathering at the Rajiv Sadbhavana Yatra here, Digvijaya Singh hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying BJP was taking up issues that would "divide people on communal lines." "BJP has changed the meaning of secularism. Those who oppose BJP are being termed as 'anti-nationals.'

Those who support them are called nationalists. According to BJP or Sangh, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who was behind the division of this country, is secular and Mahatma Gandhi who fought and took bullet for the unity of Hindus and Muslims is called communal," the senior leader alleged.

He charged the BJP with taking political advantage out of the sacrifices made by the Indian soldiers. Reacting to Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar's recent remark where he credited his 'RSS teachings' behind taking decision to conduct “surgical strikes” across LoC, Digvijaya Singh asked where it was not insulting the Army. “Our Foreign Affairs Secretary said surgical strikes were carried out even before also. You mean to say the Army had the ideology of Sangh at that time also."

Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar told a Parliamentary panel on Tuesday that the army had carried out "target specific, limited-calibre, counter-terrorist operations" across the LoC in the past too but this was for the first time the government had gone public about it.

He ridiculed Modi's recent comments that the country would go from "Yudh" (war) to "Budh" (referring to Buddha, peace) and sought to know if the government wanted to destroy the lives of lakhs of people before seeking "peace like Samrat Ashoka." "The NDA government has failed on all fronts. No jobs, no increase in FDIs, no black money brought back to India. In order to cover up their failures, they want bring war between India and Pakistan," he claimed.

Digvijaya Singh stressed that the judiciary should take serious view of violation of Anti-Defection Act. He accused Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao of encouraging defections. Finding fault with the BJP leaders for stating that the surgical strikes had never taken place in the past, TPCC Chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy made it clear that he knew as an ex-army man that surgical strikes took place even in the past several times.

Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council Mohammad Ali Shabbir said the minorities and Dalits in the country were living in a state of fear under NDA regime. Shabbir Ali said the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had strived to promoted communal harmony and the party was continuing his legacy and would protect the country’s pluralistic culture. Digvijay Singh presented Sadbhavana Award to former chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh High Court M.N. Rao.