The Congress on Friday said criticism of political adversaries should be “restrained and kept within limits”. Congress leader Sachin Pilot said that the tendency these days is to make serious allegations against political adversaries like dubbing them as anti-nationals.
Pilot made the statement while referring to the debate on nationalism started by BJP in which it was showing its political opponents in poor light. Interestingly, two days back Congress had utilised the death anniversary of Bhagat Singh to run down RSS ideologue VD Savarkar by juxtaposing him against the latter. “Bhagat Singh dared the British Raj to send the executioners. BJP-RSS ideologue Savarkar begged for his own release,” Congress had said on social media.
During the Budget session of Parliament, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi too had targeted Savarkar suggesting that the ruling party runs on his ideals, while the Congress path was shown by Mahatma Gandhi.
Meanwhile, batting for JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said the student leader has never said he is not proud to be an Indian. “When this young man, who you object to so strongly, stands up and says I want freedom from...He mentions casteism, he mentions capitalism. I don’t agree necessarily to things that he talks about. He has never said that he doesn’t take pride in being an Indian. What he says is contrary — that he is proud enough of India that he wants to change it into a better place...He is also proud of jawans fighting on border,” Tharoor said during a session on “India Shastra: Reflections of our time” at the annual ‘Take Pride’ summit organised by CII.
Sharing an anecdote about KR Narayanan, the first Dalit president of the country, Tharoor said, “Despite being a brilliant student, he was not given his degree at the same ceremony as his upper caste classmates. This man could have easily turned bitter against India but he wanted
to change the system
within.”
In a veiled jibe at HRD Minister Smriti Irani, Tharoor said: “In Afghanistan, in the last decade, nobody could call an Afghan at 8.30 in the evening and get him to pick up the phone because that was the time when ‘Kyunki saas bhi kabhi bahu thi’ would be telecast, it was such a popular show....Why we would rather prefer Tulsi on TV serials than try and run the HRD Ministry.”
Tharoor lauded NDA Government for the UN resolution for World Yoga Day. “One thing I have always been willing to give the current Government a credit for is adoption of the UN resolution on celebration of an International Yoga Day. So we actually have an Indian practice being celebrated across the world which in a way would be tremendous enhancement of the country’s soft power,” Tharoor said.