Mumbai: Former Union Minister and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor lashed out at BJP for “wounding” India’s soul by “unleashing forces of intolerance, hatred and bigotry” within the nation on Wednesday.
During an interaction organized by the AIPC, the Lok Sabha MP from Thiruvananthapuram said such hatred, intolerance had not prevailed in the past and things have now gotten out of hands in BJP’s reign.
Referring to the barbaric rape-and-murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua, Jammu and Kashmir, Tharoor said the party should not be shielding the perpetrators which have caused nationwide outrage.
“This is done in the name of religion. No one is saying the BJP or the government run by the party is directly responsible for this. But, it has unleashed forces of intolerance, hatred and bigotry.
If they had mismanaged the economy, at least they should have protected the social fabric. But, they have wounded India’s soul,” said Tharoor.
Also a former UN diplomat, Tharoor lashed out at the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre, for taking political credit when the party has not done any work other than indulging itself in marketing and PR exercise.
“Even in case of foreign policy, the government wanted to take political credit without doing anything, such things may work in domestic politics but not in the foreign policy arena,” Shashi said referring to last year’s Dokhlam Standoff and the 2016 surgical strikes across the LoC.
When asked whether Congress was engaging in ‘soft Hindutva’ since party Chief Rahul had visited Temples during election campaigns, Shahshi replied, “It is not soft Hindutva, but an attempt to neutralise the BJP’s argument that they alone represent Hindus.”
Expressing his concern over Hindutva ideology that is engulfing the young generation who are now boldly expressing their hatred and barbaric acts with no law and order in place, he said, “this ideology has grown in the last four years and people are getting attracted to the language and rhetoric of its proponents.”
Referring to the recent attacks on the media, judiciary, bureaucracy, Tharoor said the need of the hour is to strengthen the democracy in India.