Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Thursday slammed the BJP for trying to create a 'monolithic idea of India', rather than protecting (the idea of) India as written in the Constitution.
Speaking during a public meeting at Verna in South Goa in support of Congress' Lok Sabha candidate Captain Viriato Fernandes (Retd), Mr Tharoor said, "All the precious values that we built in 65 years are under threat now."
"I spent my early childhood in Bombay, where my classmates were from every religion. But our parents never mentioned religion to us. We are all Indians living in a multi-religious and multi-lingual country," he said.
"Today, we are seeing a party that is devoted not to the idea of equality, but to the slogan of 'Hindi, Hindutva, Hindusthan'. The BJP is creating a monolithic idea of India," Mr Tharoor said.
"They want 'one nation, one election', 'one party, one leader', 'one religion, one god'... They want everything to be 'one' and one ruler to control it all. But that is not the idea of India as written in the Constitution by Babasaheb Ambedkar," the Congress MP said.
Expressing his happiness over campaigning in support Viriato Fernandes, an ex-naval officer, Mr Tharoor said, "People from every religion are there in the defence service to protect us."
"Now we need to protect our democracy, which is under threat," he added.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
