New Delhi: Veteran Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar has called out rightwing politics at a debate in the Calcutta Club on Sunday saying that Hindutva is Hinduism in paranoia.
The debate titled ‘Hinduism Needs Protection From Hindutva’ was hosted by the Calcutta Debating Circle.
At the debate involving Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, lawyer J Sai Deepak, BJP MP Sudhanshu Trivedi, historian Ruchika Sharma and veteran journalist Ashutosh among others, Aiyar said Hindutva ‘asks 80 per cent Hindus to quiver in front of 14 per cent Muslims’.
‘Hindutva is Hinduism in paranoia. It asks 80 per cent Hindus to quiver in front of 14 per cent Muslims. Hindutva is a BJP leader slapping a blind, hungry tribal girl because she attends a Christmas lunch in a Church. Hindutva raids shopping malls to tear down Christmas decorations. Savarkar described Buddhism as an existential threat to all Hindus. He described it as the ultimate negation of Hindutva, bearing the opiate of universalism and nonviolence. He said it was disastrous to national virility and even the existence of the Hindu race,’ Aiyar reportedly said.
Expanding on his line of thought further, Aiyar called Hinduism a great spiritual religion but ‘Hindutva is a political tract’, which he said had come into existence in 1923.
‘For thousands of years before Hindutva, Hinduism faced trial and tribulation and yet survived, flourished, with no need of Hindutva protection... There is no way Gandhi's and Swami Vivekananda's Hinduism can be protected or promoted by Savarkar's Hindutva.’
Quoting Sarvakr he said ‘'Hindus understand themselves as Hindus through acts of violence', while Mahatma Gandhi termed it ‘an old-age civilisation and is essentially non-violent’.
‘You've seen that Hindutva vigilantes beat up and even kill anyone suspected of hoarding, eating or transporting beef. Gandhiji wrote it is a denial of Hinduism and of Ahimsa to kill a human being to protect a cow,’ Aiyar reportedly said.
The BJP's Sudhanshu Trivedi came down on Aiyar questioning the latter’s use of suffix ‘ism’ adding ‘Why is 'ism' associated with all the religions that originated in India? You have never heard of Islamism and Christianism’.
Sudhanshu Trivedi added that ‘The 'ism' world is being associated just to demean, and what Hindutva is, 'Hindu tattva'. The basic immunity of Hinduism is Hindu tattva... Another thing I would like to say, when you cherish Hinduism, it is called Hindutva.’
BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said Mani Shankar Aiyar ‘After doing Sena ka apmaan, now it is Sanatan ka apmaan. Mani Shankar Aiyar says Hinduism and Hindutva are different, that Hindutva is violent, and that Hindutva advocates beating up people. This is the same line of Congress that Hindutva is ISIS and Boko Haram’.