Secular India is being converted into a religion-based state, Local Self-Governments Minister M.B. Rajesh has said. He was in Kozhikode on Thursday to open a seminar on ‘The future of secular India’. It was organised as part of the State conference of the Indian National League (INL).
Mr. Rajesh said the process to build a Hindu Rashtra had begun eight years ago when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came into power on its own. The BJP coming to power on its own meant the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) getting the control of the state. “The BJP is not like any other political party in the country, it is the political arm of the RSS, whose stated objective is to make India a Hindu Rashtra. It doesn’t believe in democracy and secularism,” he said. Thus, what the RSS had been doing before 2014 is now being done by the state and its instruments. The Citizenship Amendment Act and the various acts being implemented in States were its examples, said Mr. Rajesh.
“Another important factor is that the corporate forces in the country are supporting their bid to set up a religion-based state here. India is being ruled by a Hindutva-corporate alliance. The corporates prefer a dictator to take forward neoliberal policies, which are facing challenges everywhere in the world,” he said.
Ports Minister Ahammad Devarkovil, K.T. Jaleel, MLA, CPI leader Binoy Viswam, among others, were present. The INL also held its national council meeting on Thursday. The State conference will conclude on Friday.
