Only inclusive politics can protect India's composite heritage: Sharad Yadav

NEW DELHI: Janata Dal (United) leader Sharad Yadav, who recently termed as ‘unfortunate’ his colleague Nitish Kumar’s realigning JDU with BJP, on Sunday said ‘only inclusive politics’ can ‘protect the composite heritage of India’. Yadav’s comment comes as some of his party colleagues, various Opposition leaders, social activists, representatives of farmers, Dalits, backwards and Muslims and some from Samajwadi Parivar are slated to attend a conference he is organising in Delhi on August 17.

On the purpose of his conference, Yadav told ET: “India has a composite heritage and it is the spirit of that heritage which ensures people belonging to different castes, sometime as diverse as 20 castes, and many religions live together harmoniously in villages, states, regions and across India. Therefore, only an inclusive brand of politics can protect and nurture this composite heritage of India”.

Dwelling further on the theme Yadav added: “It is important to reaffirm our commitment to that composite heritage of India. The running theme of the conference will be ‘Sajha Viraasat Bachaho Sammelan (Save India’s composite heritage meet)”.

His Delhi conference, incidentally, is slated two days ahead of the JDU executive meeting Nitish Kumar is convening in Patna on August 19. Yadav, who is currently holding consultations with various politicians and activists, is also scheduled to start a 3-day tour from Bihar from Patna on August 10 and culminating at Madhepura, the Lok Sabha constituency he has represented four times.

While some emissaries of Kumar and BJP are still reaching out to Yadav for ‘peace talks’, his associates feel he could spell out his future political course at the conference even as many debate whether Yadav will formally raise the banner of revolt from within JDU against ‘the Nitish Kumar line’ and charter an independent course with strategic tieups.