A day after Maharashtra Minister Nitesh Rane on Friday stoked controversy by saying that the full form of EVM is “every vote against mullahs,” Congress MP Shashi Tharoor condemned it saying Rane’s statement was “quite shocking”
Speaking to news agency ANI, Tharoor said, “This kind of thing is quite shocking. In our country, we really have to understand the basic lesson of the freedom struggle, which is that when one set of people said that religion is the basis of their nationhood. They went away and created Pakistan. Mahatma Gandhi onwards, our leader said we have fought for the freedom of everybody. We will create a country for everybody, we will write a constitution for everybody, and everybody will live here with equal rights.”
“The opposition is blaming the EVMs (for the defeat in assembly elections). But we have won on EVMs. Our EVM means every vote against mullahs … Our responsbility is to protect those who brought the saffron government into power in Maharashtra. The state has Hindutva government in place… We will not allow the festive event to take place at Vishalgad on January 12,” Rane had said in Sangli.
“I must say that people picking on any one community, whether it’s against Muslims, Hindus, Christians, or any caste, that is all wrong. We are all equal individual citizens of India, and that is the only basis on which our country can progress,” he added.
“We will protect all those who salute the Tricolour… sing the national anthem. This is the land of Hindus and therefore our priority is Hindu interest. Words like ‘Bhaichara’ should be used in Pakistan. If we have to think twice just to perform pujas, then the question wether we are living in a Hindu nation arises. The Congress has wrecked the word secularism. As a Hindu, we should have a clear-cut stand and ideology. I have become an MLA on Hindu votes,” Rane had said on Friday.
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