Those who wear mask of tolerant Muslim do it for Governor, VP posts: Union MoS S P Singh Baghel

Alluding to the debate over basic structure of the Constitution, Baghel said the basic structure of the nation was Hindu Rashtra.

“People keep talking about the Constitution’s basic structure and how it cannot be tinkered with. The basic structure of this nation is that of Akhand Bharat Hindu Rashtra before 1192. I have never agreed with (Ram Manohar) Lohia ji’s views that Ghouri and Ghaznavi were looters while Akbar, Dara Shukoh and Razia Sultan are our ancestors. The Delhi sultanate was run based on Shariat. It was a hardline regime,” said Baghel, in his address as chief guest at the annual Narad Patrakar Samman Samaroh organised at Maharashtra Sadan here.

He made these comments in context of a speech delivered by Information Commissioner Uday Mahurkar, who spoke ahead of him and articulated that while India must fight Islamic fundamentalism, it must embrace figures such as Akbar, who were tolerant. Mahurkar said similarly moderate and tolerant Muslims in India must be embraced.

Baghel dismissed Akbar’s religious tolerance as mere tactics.

“Akbar understood that this is a nation of majority Hindus. He knew that he could not rule Akhand Bharat by hurting religious sentiments. But this was a strategy. It did not come from the heart. If Akbar was really secular, the massacre of Chittorgarh would not have happened. Din-e-Ilahi and Sulah-e-Kul were also part of a strategy as was inclusion of Hindus among the Navratnas. His marriage [to Jodhabai] was also a political marriage. When he died, his last words were ‘Ya Allah!’,” Baghel said.

While conceding that Akbar’s reign was “less fundamentalist”, the minister said he can never forgive Jehangir for the murder of Guru Tegh Bahadur and the Mughals for the deeds of Aurangzeb.

“After Prithiviraj Chauhan’s defeat to Mohammed Ghouri, our culture, language and traditions have been under threat. Now they (Muslims) think they were rulers, how can they become subjects. That’s where the problem lies. Poor education [within the community] only adds to it. In madarsas, they learn Urdu, Arabic and Persian, which is fine, but it will only make them Imam. If they study physics and chemistry, they will become Abdul Kalam,” he said.

He argued that communalism and disproportionate increase in population were bigger dangers than corruption.

RSS joint publicity in-charge Narendra Thakur, who also spoke at the event, asked the media not to engage in negative journalism and put positive news on the front page.

“Media should not show too much negative news. It must put positive news on its front pages. When you are writing you must also think whether the time is right to write whatever you are writing. Journalism should be in the interest of society and the nation,” he said.

He also cautioned against fake news. “We have to guard against fake news journalism. Social media has become a big factor. When something begins running on it, the media is under pressure to follow it and sometimes runs it without verifying. The RSS is the biggest victim of fake news,” Thakur said.