Bhopal: Digvijaya Singh on Sunday discredited the allegations about former JNU student union president Kanhaiya Kumar raising ‘tukde-tukde’ slogans over which the CPI candidate for Begusarai still faces charges.
Addressing a public meeting of Communist Party of India in Bhopal, Singh claimed that there had been confusion over Kumar’s alleged remarks in his party but firmly expressed that the Congress should have given the Begusarai seat to CPI in the agreement.
“I am sure Kanhaiya and his associates never raised tukde-tukde slogans,” he affirmed and claimed that they were just lies spread by a private news channel, which had gotten BJP/RSS workers to sloganeer in order to defame Kanhaiya and his colleagues.
Singh refrained from naming the news channel.
He also said that Kanhaiya and others should be honoured as they are associated with an ideology and are fighting against communalism. Singh further declared that Kumar will address election rallies in Bhopal in his support on May 8 and 9.
The former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister heaped praises on the Left and said that it was the only political stream, which was still committed to an ideology. Congress, he said, was a rainbow-like movement that had all shades from right to centre to left.
Singh further recounted that post-2003 he had disassociated himself from the party after it was perceived that his presence would cost the Congress votes. “But when I saw that the BJP and RSS were gaining strength and Congress was silent, I decided that I won’t remain silent,” he said.
The leader also invoked Karl Marx's famous quote “religion is the opium of the people” and said that in our country’s context, “religious fundamentalism is the opium”. “The religious fundamentalists are fanning hatred which is causing violence,” he opined.
Reacting to his remarks on Kanhaiya Kumar, BJP vice president Prabhat Jha said, “Has Digvijaya Singh doubts about the judiciary. Let him (Kumar) come to campaign, we all would know who was a supporter of nationalism and who wasn’t.”
Kumar is taking on BJP’s firebrand leader Giriraj Singh from Begusarai in Bihar. The grand alliance was about to field him as their alliance candidate, which did not pan out, as a result of a difference of opinion between the allies.
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