BJP destroying India's soul, diversity under threat: Congress leader in Mizoram

AIZAWL: Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Friday accused the BJP of destroying the soul of the country and putting its diversity under threat.

Ramesh, who arrived in Aizawl on Friday on a two-day poll campaign, said that the BJP is allegedly attempting to impose uniformity in the country, which is against the idea of India.

"It (BJP) is destroying the soul of India. So we are fighting these elections to preserve our diversities that have defined India and not to impose an artificial uniformity across states, across cultures and across regions," the former union minister told a news conference in Aizawl.

The Congress MP from Karnataka said that there is a fundamental difference between the BJP and the Congress.

While the BJP wants to impose uniformity across the country, the Congress on the other hand aims to strengthen unity through celebrating the country's diversity, he said.

"The Northeast, particularly Mizoram, is a land of diverse religions, diverse cultures, diverse languages, diverse ways of life and diverse ways of dressing. All these are under threat," the former Union Minister said.

The Congress general secretary said the BJP's idea of one nation one election, one nation one religion, one nation one culture, one nation one tax, and one nation one history are against the very idea of India.

He also accused the BJP of following bluff and rule policy and said that Manipur is an example of that.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government have bluffed the Meiteis, the Kukis and the Nagas and in 11 months the Prime Minister can't come to Manipur, speak to the state chief minister, had not met MPs, or MLAs, political parties and also failed to speak for even 3 minutes about the ethnic violence, he said.

"What has happened in Manipur is a direct result of the policy of polarization and divisiveness of the BJP and the RSS. Manipur is just the beginning and it shows the results and consequences of the BJP’s politics of poison, politics of hate, politics of dividing society and not respecting the cultures of the local people," Ramesh said.

"What they (BJP) have done in Manipur was a deliberately engineered violence in which hundreds of people have been killed, lakhs of people have been displaced and hundreds of places of worship have been burned down," he added.

Ramesh said that the upcoming Lok Sabha polls are crucial for the survival of the democracy, to have freedom of speech, freedom after speech and for the survival of the country's constitution.

"The battle is not just a battle for votes. It is a battle for the soul of India, for the survival of our democracy and the protection of our sacred constitution," he said.