Amid a debate over Hindi and linguistic diversity in the country, the Congress on Thursday accused the BJP of inventing issues in the name of nationalism that ignite divisiveness among Indians.
Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi alleged that the BJP invents a new debate everyday, be it over 'burqa', 'halal' meat, religion or language, in order to divide people.
"For the last few years we are seeing new debates cropping up every day. All the debates have different names. According to me, they have one common name...divisiveness," he told reporters.
He reminded Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government that the country used to have language rights in the 1960s and said a three-language formula was devised at that time.
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"Mercifully, we have not had these problems for roughly 50-60 years. You are here only to deliberately ignite divisiveness. You want divisiveness. You are searching for divisiveness. And you talk of nationalism. For you, there is no better form of nationalism than ensuring divisiveness," Singhvi alleged.
The Congress leader further alleged that every day a new debate with a different name is being created and "it suits the BJP if we engage in that debate".
He said the three-language formula stood the test of time and "whenever you have imposed Hindi, it has never worked".
"Here you are saying I will make you conscious that you are not Hindi speaking. I will ram down your throat. I will make sure that you speak only in Hindi. Is this the way to govern a country like India," he asked.
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Bollywood star Ajay Devgn's comment on Hindi being India's national language snowballed into a major debate on Thursday with leaders across the political spectrum, including BJP's Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and NC's Omar Abdullah, among those backing linguistic diversity.
What started off as a Twitter exchange between Devgn and Kannada actor Kichcha Sudeep on Wednesday took a political turn as Bommai joined his predecessors and political rivals, Congress’ Siddaramaiah and JD-S’ H D Kumaraswamy in stressing that Hindi is like any other language in India and not the national language.
