India News | Need for National Debate on ‘political Misuse’ of Secularism: Naqvi
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. Former Union minister and senior BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Sunday called for a national debate on the “political misuse” of secularism.
Agency News PTI| Jul 06, 2025 05:12 PM IST
Prayagraj (UP), Jul 6 (PTI) Former Union minister and senior BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Sunday called for a national debate on the “political misuse” of secularism.
He also said the original Preamble of the Constitution did not include the terms secularism and socialism, and yet India has always been a secular and socialist country.
Naqvi was in Prayagraj to attend the Muharram programme at his native Bhadari village.
“After Independence, Pakistan hoisted the Islamic flag, while India followed the path of ‘Sarv Dharma Sambhav’. This is proof of the values, culture and thinking of the majority community of India.
“Because in the original Constitution, there were neither the words secularism nor socialism. Despite this, India has always been a secular and socialist country,” the BJP leader said
During Emergency in 1976, there was “political selfishness behind making secularism and socialism a part of the Constitution by tampering with its basic spirit”.
“There should be a national debate on the political misuse of secularism,” Naqvi said.
He also targeted Pakistan, saying “the Made in Islamabad terror toys are proving terrible for the tenets of Islam and a tragedy for Islamabad.”
Speaking to reporters, Naqvi said that the bravehearts of the Indian armed forces damaged, destroyed, and dismantled the “territory of terrorism”, delivering a punishment that will be remembered for generations by the “manufacturers of terror toys”.
He stressed that the Narendra Modi government is carrying forward the glorious journey of good governance with continuity and commitment to “‘iqbal (authority), imaan (integrity) and insaaf (justice)”.
This is for the first time after Independence, that a non-Congress government at the Centre is setting records of good governance and success on all fronts with stability and “that too without any Congress remote and support. This is the reason behind the frustration and bitterness of the feudal clan”, the BJP leader said.
Attacking the Congress and the Samajwadi Party, Naqvi said that these political parties are engaged in a “drive of deception”, but the people are repeatedly defeating their arrogance on the political pitch.
“The reason behind the failures of this frustrated fraternity is their foolishness to consider democracy as a Disneyland of the defaulter dynasty,” he said.
The former Union minister also said that Prime Minister Modi, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath or any BJP-ruled state have never discriminated against Muslims in terms of development, irrespective of the fact that most of the Muslims had displayed “stinginess in voting for the BJP for a long time”.
“The time has come when we have to get rid of this mood of intolerance and untouchability against the BJP. The BJP is the reality of the country and ignoring it is not good for the country and the Muslims. We will have to put a shutter of trust on the gutter of fear and confusion,” he remarked.
Naqvi said India is witnessing a golden period of Constitutional reforms and inclusive empowerment for the welfare and prosperity of the people.
“We will have to be cautious about the communal infection of the so-called pseudo-secular syndicate, who are history-sheeters of playing the game of communalism while wearing the veil of secularism.
“Those who want to become feudal without fiefdom and are landlords without land are trying to paint the BJP as a villain only to block the inclusion of Muslims into the mainstream political and development process,” Naqvi alleged.
He also said that every reform of the Modi government is a guarantee of constitutional protection of religious faith and the resolve to reform the administrative system.
On the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections, Naqvi said that those raising questions on the poll process have realised that their “swarm of stopgap” will be knocked out and will fail to conquer the “mountain of mass mandate”.
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)