Cong has proclivity for soft Hindutva: Yechury

Congress' soft Hindutva approach in the current Assembly elections has not gone down well with CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury.

Yechury said that the Opposition unity against Narendra Modi-led government will not come in the way of fighting such deviations.

He also said 'notebandi' (demonetisation) will do to Modi what 'nasbandi' (vasectomy campaign during Emergency) did it to the then prime minister Indira Gandhi.

Yechury's comments came at a press interaction at Indian Women's Press Club (IWPC) where he was asked about the Congress' campaign plank in Madhya Pradesh where it is promising cow shelters and its president Rahul Gandhi's frequent temple visits.

"We have always maintained that the Congress has this proclivity for soft Hindutva... The Congress is a secular party but it has an inclination to compromise with communalism. That is the Congress' character. We had fought this in the past and we will do it again. When the secular, democratic character of our Constitution is to be upheld, religion should be separated from our government and politics," he said.

Referring to the farmers march, he said that the present government was ignoring these demands and concentrating on the "communal Hindutva votebank".

Asked about the Opposition parties not getting their act together at the national level, he said there could never be an "all India" coalition prior to elections.

"It is the people's pressure from below that is forcing all the parties to come together to ensure that this government is removed," he said.

When asked about the face of Opposition in the fight against Modi, he countered projections that absence of a prime ministerial face against Modi has weakened the Opposition.

"In 2004 also, it seemed that there was no one worthy of countering BJP's A B Vajpayee, but still he lost," he said.