Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said that Hindutva conveys a message of bringing all sections of society together and progressing with inclusive thinking.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Sunday slammed People’s Democratic Party leader Iltija Mufti for calling Hindutva a “disease.”
He said that those unfamiliar with the country’s “sanskriti and sanskar” should be gently reminded of the importance of “Sanatan culture.” “Hindutva is desh ki ‘sanskriti’ hai, ‘sanskar’ hai and those who are unaware of the ‘sanskriti and sanskar’ of this country definitely need to be given a message about Sanatan culture once again,” ANI quoted Naqvi as saying.
He added that Hindutva conveys a message of bringing all sections of society together and progressing with inclusive thinking. “As far as the question is concerned, Hindutva gives a message of uniting all sections of society and moving forward with inclusive thinking. There is no need to provide any further explanation on this,” said Naqvi.
“Some people have developed a phobia of Hindutva, and those with such a phobia should study it once. They should understand it,” the BJP leader said.
Earlier on Sunday, PDP leader Iltija Mufti, daughter of former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, clarified her ‘controversial’ post where she expressed a strong criticism of ‘Hindutva,’ calling it a ‘disease.’
This comes after the PDP leader, reacting to a purported video of the attack on minor Muslim boys forced to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram,’ called Hindutva “a disease” that has “afflicted millions of Indians & sullied a God’s name.” “Ram the deity must hang his head in shame & watch helplessly as minor Muslim boys are whacked with chappals only because they refuse to chant his name,” she said on Saturday.
Clarifying her stance on Sunday, Mufti drew a clear distinction between Hindutva and Hinduism, emphasising that the former is a religion promoting values of secularism, love, and compassion, similar to Islam, while criticised Hindutva as an “ideology of hate.”
“There is a lot of difference between Hindutva and Hinduism. Hindutva is a philosophy of hate that Veer Savarkar spread in India in the 1940s with the aim of establishing the hegemony of Hindus, and the philosophy was that India belongs to Hindus and is for Hindus. Like Islam, Hinduism is also a religion that promotes secularism, love, and compassion. So, let’s not deliberately distort it,” she said.
Mufti further argued that the slogan “Jai Shri Ram” is being used as a tool to instigate hate, rather than representing the ideals of “Ramrajya.” Source
