Sir — This refers to Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh’s remark that we must not divide the country on the basis of ‘Hindu nationalism’. Hinduism is not a straight-jacketed religion but a way of life, as the Supreme Court has highlighted. Mr Narendra Modi’s detractors must not try to mislead the people by raising issues that are meaningless and flogging the communal horse to help their political cause.
In the US, the Hispanics, the English, the Jews, those of African origin, the Italians — all are, and conduct themselves as, American nationalists. This is not based on their religion or extra-territorial loyalty but on nationalist fervour. If Mr Singh’s definition is correct, then Mahatma Gandhi and Swami Vivekananda were ‘communal’ and ‘fundamentalists’.