Hitting back at intellectuals’ protest against “alleged intolerance”, the BJP on Thursday said the phenomenon was born out of the fact that for the last 60 years when the Congress and its dependents, including the left, were in power at the Centre, these elements had “octopus like presence” in most of the academic and cultural institutions in the country.
The BJP said these protests are an attempt to “derail the development momentum” created by the Modi Government, which has a “vested interest” in keeping peace.
BJP president Amit Shah released a collection of articles bunched in a booklet titled “Know the truth: Some are misled, some are misleading”. “Why were the so-called intellectuals silent then and violent now,” it says, dubbing the campaign as “nothing but an ideological intolerance”.
Addressing the Press conference on the occasion, Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said since 1969, the Congress had a quid-pro-quo with the left parties packing most of institutions with their men. “Although miniscule in political presence, the left exercised disproportionate and almost hegemonic distinction in these institutions. After the split, the Congress was heavily dependent on them for political support,” he said.
“Now with the change in the regime, an alternative view is emerging. That is why they are frustrated…they are not ready to tolerate the other view emerging now,” Naidu said referring to the BJP’s victory in 2015 lok Sabha polls.
The senior Minister said the BJP has no problem with some people returning their awards “but we have a problem with the ongoing efforts saying that there is growing intolerance.”
Naidu reasoned that the BJP being in power would like “peace” to prevail in the country so that developmental momentum continues uninterrupted.
He said the ongoing camping is an effort “to derail” the development programmes. Naidu said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already called for adopting “Mantra of Unity” as the medium of “our thinking and behaviour”.
“Instead of making efforts to promote understanding among sections of different faiths, creative persons like writers and artists are barking up the wrong tree.
They should reach out to people with their gifted talents to promote a spirit of mutual respect and understanding instead of taking to extreme by returning their honours,” the BJP leader said.