NEW DELHI, Mar 4:
A nation “disintegrates” when those in power create “disputes” and not due to “sloganeering by youths”, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad stated here today even as he pitched for keeping alive secularism.
Speaking at the National Seminar on ‘Journey of Modern India’, Azad, the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha launched a veiled attack on the ruling party alleging that vote bank politics is dividing communities.
“This disintegration will not take place due to sloganeering by four youths, whether the video was doctored or not, I am not going into it. If some youths give slogans that India will be disintegrate into pieces, a nation does not disintegrate thus.
“I have heard such slogans for 50 years, Kashmir is still there, I became its Chief Minister too (later) emerging out of those students only. I have seen that Kashmir.
“And some of those who raised slogans became judges, professors, woh sudhar gaye (they did mend their ways). It is like an infatuation in students’ life. But a nation disintegrates when those who run the Government create disputes,” Azad told the gathering.
During his speech, Azad accused the Government of not acting against its own Ministers including Ram Shankar Katheria, MPs and ruling party office-bearers for allegedly making communal statements.
“You inflict sedition on students for sloganeering, but if the same slogans MPs and Minister raise, you don’t even file an FIR. How this double standard will work?,” he asked.
Azad lauded country’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru for hailing secularism during crisis situation like during partition, when the “situation was tense due to communalism”.
Azad underscored need for spreading messages of Gandhi and Nehru in the present circumstances as secularism is facing its “biggest threat”.
“Secularism is facing its biggest threat today. And I will say, more you will spread message about Gandhi and Nehru, lesser it will be because the direction in which the country is heading is not in the interest of country’s unity and integrity,” he added.
The inaugural session of the seminar, organised by Rajiv Gandhi study circle, was also organised by former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and intellectuals. (PTI)
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