CPI leader D Raja slams Swamy’s remarks

CPI leader D Raja on Monday termed as ‘outrageous’ BJP leader Subramanian Swamy’s reported statement that books of Nehruvian historians should be set afire and said that it ‘reflects the mindset of fascist right’. ‘It is an outrageous...atrocious statement. People who believe in democratic principles must stand up against this kind of attack on academic freedom,’ Raja said referring to Swamy’s reported statement at a a seminar organised by the RSS-backed Akhil Bharatiya Itihaas Sankalan Yojana (ABISY) on ‘A Forgotten Hindu Emperor, Maharaja Hemchandra Vikramaditya’.

Recalling the incidents of burning the Jaffna Public Library by ‘fascism-inspired mob of Sinhalese origin’ during the Sri Lankan civil war in 1981, Raja said academicians had always been the target of right wing fascist forces.