PM Of This Nation Should Not Speak Such Polarizing Language: Shashi Tharoor

Don’t you think the Congress party has a responsibility to explain now that this has come under scrutiny and we are debating it, which shouldn’t be a bad thing. As to whether they mean distribution, redistribution of wealth in a manner that the fear that it invokes you will take from some who have earned something and distributed to others that you deem are more worthy. Is that what the path India should say, not what I believe in? What as a member of the manifesto committee was ever discussed? All I can say is if the Prime Minister has made a fairly shameful remark that they’re going to take away your family gold and your Mangal Sutra and give it to Muslims #1 as I said, there is no word. The word Muslim doesn’t occur in the manifesto #2 nowhere is this kind of redistribution talked about #3 the same Prime Minister said this country has been ruled for 65 years by the Congress repeatedly. Have we ever done this in these 65 years? Have we ever taken away people’s wealth and given it to minorities or Muslims in particular? I’m sorry, this is naked communal politics, Shivani. We have to call it out for what it is. And I must say, for the Prime Minister of a country to do this is truly shameful. He is the Prime Minister of all Indians of whatever religion, whatever caste, whatever background, whatever income group. He should not be speaking such polarizing language. It is deeply dismaying and disappointing. I respect the office of Prime Minister, but this is something that is very difficult. He’s saying Manmohan Singh, the Congress Prime Minister, is also on record to say minorities have the first right to Indias resources, particularly the Muslims. Now you can contextualize it whichever way you see, but the reality is that this is the this is the duality of Indian politics. Congress on one hand, is accused of appeasing Muslims. To the extent that a lot of your policies are devised only to appease a certain section. You could say it includes other minorities too. But the charge for Congress faces is not that it was. I was disagreeing for Congress. Shivani. I think the strength of the Congress party is we look at people and we see Indians first. We do not see Indians primary. That’s the way I was brought up by a very nationalist father who belonged to that generation that came of aid with independence. My dad turned 18 and 1947, so for him these values are profound. He dropped his caste name in college because he felt that again was not the right thing to do. When I was growing up in Bombay as a child, friends from order who came in play, never once had he mentioned anyones religion or caste, nor my mother. That is that no one would say, oh that Muslim boy or that Sikh boy or whatever. He was always the person by his name. We saw people as individuals, yes, you could imagine somebody was rich or somebody who was a good athlete or somebody who’s a good cricketer, somebody who’s very good at history and somebody else is very good at math. Those are qualities. But never did that generation believe in bringing children up to see people on the basis of their birth or identity features inherent in matters they couldn’t control. To my mind, that is the kind of India the Congress party has built. None.