'Triumph of Hindutva movement would mark end of Indian idea'
New Delhi: The Hindutva movement is the "mirror image" of the Muslim communalism of 1947 and its triumph would mark the end of the Indian idea, says senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, asserting that Hindutva is a political doctrine, not a religious one.
A 'Hindu India' would not be Hindu at all, but a "Sanghi Hindutva state", which is a different country altogether, says Tharoor in his new book 'The Battle of Belonging' that was released on Saturday.
"People like me want to preserve the India we love, and not turn our beloved nation into the kind of religious state we were brought up to detest," he said. Tharoor also asserted that Hindutva movement rhetoric echoes the bigotry that India was constructed to reject.
In the book published by Aleph Book Company, Tharoor makes a stinging critique of the Hindutva doctrine and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, which he says is a challenge to, arguably, the most fundamental aspect of Indianness.
Devoting a chapter to the 'Hindu Pakistan' controversy in the book, the former Union minister writes: "I had inveighed against the ruling party's attempts to create a Hindutva version of Pakistan, since that was not what our freedom movement fought for, nor was it the idea of India enshrined in our Constitution."
"This is not just about the minorities, as the BJP would have us believe. Many proud Hindus like myself cherish the inclusive nature of our faith and have no desire to live, as our Pakistani neighbours are forced to, in an intolerant mono-religious state," he writes.
Tharoor's reported comment last year that the BJP will pave the way for creation of a "Hindu Pakistan" had sparked a controversy with the party demanding his apology over the remarks. Hinduism, as Swami Vivekananda asserted, teaches the acceptance of difference as a basic credo, Tharoor said in the book.
"Hindutva is not Hinduism; it is a political doctrine, not a religious one," he said.
"What is bizarre about the media drama over my remarks is that no one who was giving airtime to multiple BJP voices, frothing at the mouth about my words, actually asked them one simple question: 'Is the BJP giving up its dream of a Hindu rashtra?'" Tharoor said.
BJP apologists point out that the government has done nothing to amend the Constitution, and others have suggested that the Supreme Court's ruling that secularism is part of the 'basic structure' of the Constitution makes the idea of a 'Hindutva Pakistan' impossible, he said. "But the fact is that both have only been held at bay by the simple fact that the BJP has not had the numbers required to achieve their goal –two-thirds of both Houses of Parliament and half the states," he said.
