PM counters BJP: Commitment to equity not appeasement

On December 9, at the National Development Council (NDC) and again at a Dalit-Muslim conference on December 27, last year, the Prime Minister had stated the necessity for equitable access in development for Muslims. Singh’s statement — that backward communities should have the first claim on the nation’s resources — resulted in an outcry from the BJP that it was Muslim appeasement.

Refusing to yield, the Prime Minister took up the Muslim equity question yet again on Tuesday at a function commemorating the 110th birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose here. He quoted Bose to obliquely target the BJP. “The vision of Netaji has immense relevance for the 21st Century and for our fight against the forces of communalism, terrorism and extremism,” Singh said.

The Prime Minister recalled that Bose too believed that all minority communities should be allowed their due space in governmental affairs. “As the President of the Indian National Congress (INC) in 1938, he (Bose) articulated a vision that is of abiding relevance. Netaji’s view that all minorities communities be allowed their due space in cultural and as well as governmental affairs testified to his humanism and commitment to egalitarian values,” he said.

Singh also recounted that both Bose and Mahatma Gandhi were deeply committed to the Hindu-Muslim unity and amity. “They were both deeply spiritual men, but equally secular. They understood that India’s great contribution to humankind is the idea of sarva dharma sambhava,” the Prime Minister said.

He recalled that Bose had advocated taking special measures for the minorities and other disadvantaged sections of society. The Prime Minister also spoke about “our fight” against “forces of communalism” as he hailed Bose as one of the tallest leaders of the country’s freedom movement.

He also cited a quote by Mahatma Gandhi in which, the Father of the Nation praised Bose for his abilities to “infuse the spirit of unity amongst his men so that they could rise above all religions and provincial barriers and shed together their blood for common cause”.

Manmohan Singh maintained that both Mahatma Gandhi and Subhas Chandra Bose shared a common vision of a free India despite differences between them over methods to achieve the objective. “He (Bose) wanted to build modern India as much on the firm base of industrialisation and science and technology as on our ancient culture and civilisation,” Singh recalled.

Bose, the Prime Minister said, united Indians of all faiths, all communities and languages and gave shape to the idea of a modern and resurgent India.