INDIA IS SHINING BECAUSE OF ITS HINDU RELIGION AND HINDUISM

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Thursday, March 16, 2006

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India democratic & secular due to Hindus: Advani

Press Trust of India
Posted online: Thursday, March 16, 2006 at 2045 hours IST

New Delhi, March 16: Apparently seeking to win back his hardcore Hindutva constituency after the Jinnah interlude, Leader of Opposition L K Advani has asserted that India’s soul was ‘Hindu’ and described RSS as a ‘power house’, a ‘university’ and the ‘biggest movement’ of the 20th century,

In an article written for Hindi weekly Outlook ahead of his controversial ‘National Integration Yatra’ which is yet to get the full backing of the Sangh Parivar, he says, “the concept of Hindu Rashtra is wide and liberal which the critics of the Sangh either do not want to understand or ignore it despite understanding it”.

In this regard, he recalled that Bharatiya Jan Sangh (earlier avatar of BJP) founder Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya had stated that both India and Hindu were ‘synonymous’ and hence ‘there is no scope for a controversy on the term Hindu Rashtra’.

“It is our belief that the identity and soul of this nation is Hindu. The meaning of the word Hindu is not in the communal sense. Whenever people ask me why India is successful as a democracy compared to other developing countries, I say that only due to Hindus, the country is both democratic and secular,” said Advani, who had to step down as BJP president after a spat with RSS over the Jinnah episode.