Visakhapatnam: At a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi has struck a conciliatory note with opposition, Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu today said the Centre was ready to discuss the issue of intolerance in the ongoing session of Parliament if Opposition allows the House to function.
Naidu also alleged that Opposition parties and some “pseudo-intellectuals” are “exaggerating” stray incidents that happened in states being “ruled by the Congress and their friends” with an aim to “tarnish” India's image amid efforts to secure a permanent seat in the UN Security Council.
“The BJP government is ready to discuss (the issue of) intolerance if opposition shows tolerance and allows the House to function. Some of the so-called intelligentsia are worried that they are losing their grip over cultural and literary organisations,” the Parliamentary Affairs Minister said, adding the protests on the issue are being “manufactured”.
“Entire campaign on intolerance is nothing but part of a campaign to slander the democratically-elected government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Those who could not defeat Modi in polls have launched the disinformation campaign for political reasons,” he said.
Naidu said the Opposition and so-called intelligentsia are hurting the interests of the country by “blowing the issue out of proportion”.
“They are thinking that they are hurting the Prime Minister and BJP, but they are hurting the interests of the country and they should understand that. They are using stray incidents of intolerance to portray it as a general condition...such incidents have been occurring in all countries,” Naidu told reporters.
The senior BJP leader also dismissed the protest by various celebrities who have returned their awards citing “growing intolerance” in the country.
“Out of 1100-odd award winners, some 42 people have returned their awards and these people are trying to say that every awardee has returned the award, which is untrue.
“Where were these award winners when Emergency was imposed, when Sikhs were massacred and when lakhs of Kashmiri Pandits were shunted out of Kashmir...why they didn't return their awards then?” Naidu asked.
Amid a raging debate over ‘intolerance', Modi had asserted in Parliament during the ongoing Winter Session that the religion of government was “India first” and the Constitution its “holy book”.
The PM had also reached out to Opposition by meeting his predecessor Manmohan Singh and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi at his residence to end the impasse on the controversial Goods and Services Tax Bill that has been hanging fire for long.
