BJP is running govt in Tamil Nadu, says Rahul Gandhi

Chennai: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Sunday accused the BJP government at the Centre of “arm twisting” and “running” the Tamil Nadu government.

Mr Gandhi hit out at the Central government over “mismanagement in Kashmir”. Speaking to reporters on Sunday, he said, “About six-seven months back, Mr Jaitley met me and I told him they are mishandling Kashmir, and that they are going to set Kashmir on fire. Arun Jaitley brushed me aside and said Kashmir is peaceful”. Speaking to the media after having discussions with party functionaries at the state Congress headquarters, Sathyamurthy Bhavan, he said: “The BJP is convinced that they run Tamil Nadu. The BJP believes that the only people who should be in power in India are people who believe in the RSS. The party believes that anybody else, regardless of who it is — whether it be Congress or any opposition party — should not exist in India”.

He also charged the saffron party with trying to enforce the belief that there should be no expression of any feelings other than the feelings of their movement”.

He said the Tamil culture is the way people of Tamil Nadu express themselves and we have to respect that. “Each Indian state has its own way of culture, own way of thinking, its own way of expressing itself and its own food,” Mr Gandhi said. Asserting that the differences are India’s strength and not weakness, he said: “The BJP is absolutely convinced that these are India’s weaknesses and these different ideas need to be crushed.”

Explaining the importance of Saturday’s meeting, he said the Opposition wanted to tell people that India is not one idea and India is thousands of ideas”. He said the one idea of RSS is never ever going to crush the thousands of different ideas here.

“We will not allow it,” Mr Gandhi said, adding the Opposition would fight together and defeat the BJP and RSS.

The “cultural imperialism” of the BJP is not acceptable to the people of India; the Congress leader said, “We are not going to allow one single idea of the RSS, a bankrupt idea to invade the country.”

Earlier, he met DMK president M. Karunanidhi at the latter’s Gopalapuram residence. Coming out the house, he wished that Mr Karunanidhi should become 100 per cent fit.

CPM general secretary, his CPI counterpart Sudhakar Reddy and CPI national secretary D. Raja also met Mr Karunanidhi. Speaking to the media, Mr Raja said the approach of the Opposition on the Presidential candidate would be decided after the stand of the BJP government is known. The Opposition wanted a president who will save secularism, he added.