Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh has openly confessed that Congress has to condemn all forms of communalism and not just limit itself to bashing RSS and the like.
Bengaluru: Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh has yet again begun to speak ‘Right’.
In a much-needed observation, he has said:
"We have to be very clear. We should not be pandering to any religious sentiment of anybody and that is real secularism. Real secularism is fighting communalism of all types with aggression."
The leader also confessed that in the outside world, Congress is seen as being soft towards minority communalism.
He said, "We have to be bold and aggressive against all forms of communalism. Unfortunately in the public, the propaganda is that the Congress is soft on minority communalism.”
He further said, “We cannot be selective, we have to be upfront, bold and say minority communalism is as dangerous to India as (much as) majority communalism is."
Interestingly, he also supported the CAA.
"Even though I am opposed to the CAA, I am the first to recognise that this CAA does not take away anybody's citizenship. It only grants citizenship selectively based on religion. It is what I am against."
The senior Congress leader also batted for a vegetarian diet.
He said, “I know that the beef curry is a very important element in Kerala's diet but there is no doubt in my mind that the carbon footprint of a non-vegetarian diet is greater than the carbon footprint of a vegetarian diet”.
Last year too, Jairam Ramesh had batted for Modi and said, “He [Mr. Modi] talks in a language that connects him with the people. Unless we recognise that he is doing things which people recognise and which have not been done in the past, we are not going to able to confront this guy.”
Days after he had said this, other senior leaders like Shashi Tharoor and Abhishek Singhvi had thrown their weight behind Ramesh.
Ultimately, Congress realises that by demonising Modi, they only demoinse themselves.
Last Updated Feb 13, 2020, 5:45 PM IST