JOIN USThe BJP on Thursday released a booklet to document its argument against the intolerance debate and accused the Congress-backed Left-leaning intellectuals of engineering protests.
The booklet, “Know the Truth – some are misled – some are misleading”, contains articles written by senior Union ministers, including Arun Jaitley and M Venkiaih Naidu, on the issue. It dubs intelligentsia’s protest as “ideological intolerance”.
It was released by BJP president Amit Shah in the presence of Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu and party leaders Arun Singh and Shrikant Sharma.
Union minister Naidu said the Congress, which ruled the country for 60 years, did not allow other views to come out. While the Left parties’ political presence declined over the years, the Congress allowed its one-time ally’s intellectuals to dominate academic organisations.
But, they are feeling uncomfortable since people voted Narendra Modi to power in 2014 and have been raising the issues now but were mum when much more heinous crimes of Dalit massacre and attack on minorities happened during the UPA regime, Naidu pointed out.
“In the past, we used to hear the adage that ‘king can do no wrong’. Now they have converted it to ‘Left can do no wrong,’” Naidu asserted. He said that the purpose of the book was to give the other side of the debate.
The BJP leaders said they were prepared for a long drawn battle on the intolerance debate, which they believe will be stretched by the Opposition to corner not only the Modi government but also party units in other poll-bound states, including West Bengal.