Secularism, citizenship under challenge in country: Chidambaram

"We have reached a point where the debate on secularism has shifted to a debate on citizenship," said Congress leader P Chidambaram

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Wednesday said secularism and citizenship are under challenge in the country and if a person is secular people today people will call her anti-national.

Speaking after the release of a book "Vision for a Nation: Paths and Perspectives", he said if one is secular these days their patriotism will be questioned and there will be people who will also question citizenship of others in course of time which is a point of danger.

The book brought out by Samruddha Bharat Foundation was earlier released by former prime minister Manmohan Singh and former vice president M Hamid Ansari, besides Chidambaram and others.

Chidambaram said one of the fundamental ideas for a modern democracy is secularism and it is under challenge along with citizenship today. He said secularism is being challenged to a point where citizenship has also become an object of attack.

"If you are secular today, there are people who will call you anti-national, if you are secular today, they will say that you are speaking the language of Pakistan, if you are secular your patriotism is under question. Many of these people will have the citizenship of others under question in course of time. That is the point of danger at which we seem to be arriving at in the last few years," he said.