BJP must explain the meaning of Hindutva: Hussain Dalwai

MUMBAI: Congress MP Hussain Dalwai today said BJP must explain what it meant by ' Hindutva', and what it thought about the rights of the minority communities.

"BJP has to come clean on the issue of Hindutva and the rights of minorities in the country as the party's manifesto has brought it back to the fore," Dalwai, a Rajya Sabha MP from Maharashtra, said here, adding that Hinduism and Hindutva were two different things.

The BJP must make it clear whether it wanted to follow the all-inclusive nationalism of Dr B R Ambedkar or the Hindutva as prescribed by Veer Savarkar and M S Golwalkar, he said. Speaking to reporters here, Dalwai hit out at the BJP for 'copying the Congress manifesto'. "BJP speaks of inclusive growth but wants a few industrialists to get everything. The party's basic character has not changed.

"Its hypocrisy on the issue of minorities is also seen in its stands in the state and the Centre. The central BJP leadership, in its manifesto, spoke of modernisation of Madarsas, while the manifesto of the Mahayuti (opposition alliance) in Maharashtra does not even mention the word Muslim or minorities," Dalwai said.

When the Congress-NCP government in Maharashtra proposed modernisation of Madarsas, Shiv Sena and BJP leaders opposed it, Dalwai noted.