New Delhi: Rising “intolerance” in the country has been the burning issue in the recent past. With several eminent personalities returning their awards and honours in protest of intolerance, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, responded to the accusations and criticism against the centre and said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been the worst victim of “ideological intolerance” since 2002.
The Union minister in turn accused the Congress, Left thinkers and activists who have charged that the government was doing nothing to curb violence, of trying to project India as an “intolerant” society through “structured and organised propaganda” so that nation’s “growth story” was obstructed.
“Over the decades, they have practised ideological intolerance towards the BJP and never intellectually accepted the idea of the BJP being in power. Since 2002, the prime minister himself has been the worst victim of ideological intolerance,” Jaitley said in a Facebook post.
They never allowed “alternative viewpoints” to grow in the universities, academic institutions and cultural bodies that “they have controlled”, he added.
“Their strategy is two-fold. Firstly, obstruct Parliament and do not permit reforms which will bring credit to the Modi government. Secondly, create, by structured and organised propaganda, an environment that (shows) there is a social strife in India. They wish to project India as an intolerant society. Truth is otherwise,” Jaitley said.
The Congress, however, dubbed Jaitley’s remarks “ridiculous”. “He is out to please the boss (Modi)….it does not behove him to talk like this at a time when from common man to the President and Moody’s to industrialists, the intellectual class, those who read books and write books, are expressing concerns over the atmosphere of intolerance,” Congress spokesperson Ajoy Kumar said.
Jaitley said while the lynching of a Muslim man in Dadri over rumours of eating beef was a “stray incident” for which the perpetrators would be punished, a “hostile propaganda” was unleashed against the Centre to put a spoke in its efforts to “accelerate India’s growth”.
“It (Dadri lynching) was both unfortunate and condemnable. The guilty will be taken to task. Notwithstanding such aberrations, India remains a highly tolerant and liberal society. Our cultural values have imbibed coexistence,” he said. India has “repeatedly” rejected intolerance and it does not respond to provocations, he added.
“The obstructers have a simple plan—if they can’t fight politically, they fight with hostile propaganda. It is, therefore, incumbent upon every well-wisher of India and the present government to make sure that no action or statement of his provides a tool in the hands of those who want to obstruct India’s growth story,” he added.
