Communal divide not restricted to cities and towns, says Kanhaiya Kumar in Mumbai

Student leader Kanhaiya Kumar on Saturday slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led central government and right-wing politics. Speaking at the inauguration of Mumbai Collective’s event for celebrating freedom and pluralism in society, Kumar said communal divide is not restricted to cities and towns anymore. Addressing a gathering of activists, authors, students and citizens, Kumar said, “RSS has divided our country, and communalism is not just a feature of cities anymore. If family members are arguing about religion at a dinner table, one calls the other a Pakistani for sympathising with the left ideology.”

Kanhaiya Kumar at Mumbai Collective’s event on Saturday(Pratik Chorge/HT)

According to Kumar, an RSS wave has gripped the country, and the only way to tackle it is by uniting left forces against this ideology. “If the communists, Marxists, progressionist, secularists, and followers of Ambedkar unite forces, RSS will be uprooted from the society” Kumar said.

Kumar targeted RSS for increasing and normalising violence in the Indian society, and blamed it on the growth of religious fanaticism. He said, “A recent RTI reply revealed that the government spent Rs3,000 crore on publicity. It is a propaganda government, and the country is losing its vision because of it.”

Taking a jibe at recent events where political parties have been bickering among themselves, Kumar said, “CPI and CPI (M) are competing with each other, but they would not do so if citizens were watching. Politics today lacks citizens’ participation.”