The Bharatiya Janata Party government led by Narendra Modi thrived on fear, deception and intimidation, said former Minister for Environment and Congress veteran Jairam Ramesh on Thursday.
He said that India faced great challenges, the greatest being its diversity. Living with diversities and plurality of cultures was a great challenge while the government was asking the country to eat, pray, and dress uniformly, he said.
Mr. Ramesh, who has written nearly a dozen books ranging from “Indira Gandhi: A Life in Nature” to “The Light of Asia: The Poem that Defined The Buddha”, a biography of Edwin Arnold’s “Light of Asia”, told The Hindu on Thursday that India had displayed a great resilience to overcome challenges.
His interaction with the media was on the sidelines of the series of talks “India Forward” organised by the Cochin Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Mr. Ramesh said he was in politics “but not of politics”, referring to his interest as a researcher and writer on various aspects of Indian life. The break from politics over the last seven years had helped him write books that had been critically acclaimed. “Politics is one aspect of my life like academic works”, he said, and pointed out that the break from politics had given him sufficient time to indulge in his great passion for research and pursuit of knowledge.
On the diversity of topics he has chosen to write on, Mr. Ramesh said he wrote with his heart and not with his head. He said he chose topics that fascinated him.
About the future of the Congress party, he said people should desist from writing off the party. Those who write off the party were indulging in fantasies. “Some say that we are going to disappear from the political scene in India. But the Congress has a lot of inner strength, a large reservoir of goodwill and support from among the people,” he said.
But he said that India was changing. Aspirations were changing and “we cannot survive with old slogans and mantras”. Defeat in elections was a part of a democratic set-up but it was important how the party was anchored in the minds and consciousness of the people, he said.
He said that the recent attack on Infosys founder Narayana Murthy by Panchajanya was “atrocious”. The Prime Minister should have publicly declared that he distanced himself from this personalised attack on one of the founders of the modern Indian economy.
Published - September 16, 2021 10:47 pm IST
