The Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) said the act of immersing former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s ashes in some selected rivers across the country has turned into a “political circus” by the BJP and to a greater extent by its Nagaland unit.
It accused the BJP of politicising the death of the former Prime Minister
The NPPC, in a release issued by its media cell, on Saturday stated the last rites were generally performed by family members for peace of the departed soul and accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP of usurping the last rites of the former Prime Minister and using it for petty political gains.
Having consigned Vajpayee into political oblivion after the 2004 electoral defeat and rendering his political thoughts and actions irrelevant through divisive agenda and hate politics, the Pradesh Congress alleged that BJP’s sudden affection for the former Prime Minister after his demise was just a ploy to extract some cheap political mileage.
It flayed the Nagaland unit of BJP, particularly state president Temjen Imna Along, for their eagerness to please their “communal masters” by following and observing rituals that were alien to “our way of life” and said this was an insult to all right thinking Nagas.
According to the state Congress, the all-out attempt by the state BJP to assimilate into a new alien culture as dictated by their high command was a severe assault on the aspirations of Nagas and their future at a time when the Nagas had been struggling for the past seven decades to protect “our unique history”.
According to NPCC, respecting others’ beliefs and culture should not be at the cost of compromising “our very own” belief and culture that formed the core foundation of “our existence” as individual and as tribe.
The NPCC said the “zealous conduct” of the state BJP president in propagating the Hindutva culture of RSS in the state that was even despised by majority of the Hindus across the country needed to be condemned.
