"Secular" word has been the biggest lie since India's independence, said Constitutionally-sworn chief minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath on Monday, calling for an apology from people who coined the term in Indian context. He also said that "distorting the history" is an act equal to sedition.
Gorakphur Mutt head Yogi Adityanath, whose selection as chief minister broke the semblance of separation between religion and politics, said in Raipur that one can be "panthnirpeksh" (sect-neutral) but never "dharmnirpeksh" (secular), reported The Indian Express.
"Mera maanna hai ki azadi ke baad Bharat mein sabse bada jhooth dharmnirpeksh shabd hai. Nagrikon ke saath, Bharat ke logon ke saath… un logon ko maafi maangni chahiye, jinhone is shabd ko janm diya aur jo yeh shabd istemaal karte hai… koi vyavastha dharmnirpeksh nahin ho sakti.(I believe that after independence, in India the biggest lie is the word secular. People who coined this term should apologise to the citizens, people of india. No system can be secular," he said at the event.
The term secular was introduced into the Preamble of the Constitution through the 42nd Amendment in 1976 under the Indira Gandhi government.
Despite our secular Constitution, Hindu right wing often rakes up the demand to scrap the world secularism, insisting that India is a Hindu nation. Secularism was widely discussed in the early years of independence during the drafting of Constitution.
Right wing leaders have time and again opposed secularism by arguing that it is a western concept that wouldn’t suit India. But critics argue that the concept of nationhood and democracy too were introduced into India post independence.
During the same event, he also said that distoriting the hisrtory is no less a crime than sedition.
In another event in Raipur, the UP CM also fired fresh salvos on the rival Copngress party. While dubbing the Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi as a "failed player in politics", he said that the party is set to face another defeat.
"BJP will again form its government with full majority in Gujarat," he said.
"Rahul Gandhi is a failed player in politics. Congress leaders themselves have started commenting on him that wherever he becomes more active, the party has to face defeat," he told the media.
