MANGALURU: The CPI (M) politburo member Brinda Karat on Monday said that more than external enemies, India faces a grave threat to its harmony, unity, diversity, and Constitution from the ideology of RSS and BJP.
Addressing a 'Harmony Convention' organised by Dakshina Kannada unit of CPI(M) in view of a slew of communal incidents in the state, Karat cautioned the people of the country to be wary of the RSS and BJP ideology stating that it does not affect only minorities. “Not just minorities, it affects each and every one of us. It changes every nature of the Indian republic by taking the country to a communal and authoritarian regime,” she said.
Commenting on the hijab ban, she said she was ashamed when girls who are breaking barriers to get educated are asked to remove their headscarves. She termed the High Court verdict banning hijab as 'unfortunate' and said the Supreme Court should redress the issue sooner.
She said that CPI(M) feels that the entire controversy over the hijab was manufactured by the ruling BJP in order to divert people's attention from its 'failures'. She sort of business do local MLAs have in College Development Committees (CDC) while parents, teachers and students manage such committees elsewhere. Condemning Udupi MLA Raghupathi Bhat for making provocative statements over hijab, she asked what action did the state government or High Court initiate against him.
Further, Karat said let the girls and their parents decide and nobody should force a girl to wear a veil or not. “But there are some forces within Muslim community which pressurize girls to wear a scarf. PFI, SDPI forces threaten them to boycott if they don't wear hijab,” she alleged.
Commenting on the anti-conversion bill, Brinda said if B R Ambedkar was alive today, he would have been jailed by this law.
CPI(M) leader K Neela accused the ruling BJP of triggering the hijab issue following backlash from people on the coast over the rejection of social reformer Narayan Guru's tableau in the Republic Day parade. “It's not an issue of headscarf. Its the issue of snatching away the women's decision of choice and ultimately to divide people,” she said.
DYFI state president Muneer Katipalla said the frequency of communal incidents in the coastal region has increased rapidly and the major worry is the silence of civil society over the same.
“The Kasmir Files does not show reality”
Later speaking to the reporters, Brinda Karat said the movie 'The Kashmir Files' does not show the reality of Kashmiriyat being attacked and making it a communal issue now does not help Kashmiris or anyone. “There is no doubt that chapter of history is a very very dark chapter. It's not the Kashmiri Pandits who suffered at that time. Those terrorists backed by Pakistan were equally cruel against anybody who opposed them. Many Muslims including former Speaker, MLAs were shot dead for fighting terrorists. So the attack was on Kashmiris. So to show one side in a way which creates hatred against a whole community does nor serve the purpose.”