India’s religion should be democracy, Constitution its holy book: Syed Naseer Hussain

Congress MP Syed Naseer Hussain today, 17 December, said India is a multi-religious society but the country's religion should only be 'democracy' and its holy book the Constitution of India.

He also said the subject of minority rights is germane to every country that calls itself a civilised nation, but going by the prevailing atmosphere in the country, India is soon turning into a "minority-hating nation".

He was participating in the discussion on the 'Glorious Journey of 75 Years of the Constitution of India' in the Rajya Sabha.

"This government has gone to the extent of making communal division into a state policy, thereby betraying the vision of the Constitution's framers and the inclusive nation that they aspired to build," the Congress MP said.

Alleging that a dangerous politics of polarisation is holding sway in the country, he claimed that an atmosphere of fear and hate has been created and that "minorities today feel their state is like that of Jews during the Nazi rule in Germany".

He spoke too of Article 25 of the Indian Constitution, which provides the fundamental right to freedom of religion and Article 26, which provides freedom to manage one's religious affairs.

"Every Hindustani has one or the other religion. We all are born in one or the other religion," he said. He added that every religion also has a holy book [sic].

"But I believe that the religion of Hindustan should be 'democracy' and its holy book should be the Constitution," the senior leader said.

Hussain also spoke of the Hindus in Bangladesh, the Hindus and Sikhs in Pakistan and the Tamil community in Sri Lanka.

Referring to the Prime Minister's remarks against the Congress, accusing it of using the Constitution for its politics, Hussain said, "For the Congress, the Constitution is an instrument of struggle for social and economic change for the vast masses of the country."

[Notably, union home minister Amit Shah had earlier in the day claimed the Congress used constitutional amendments to retain power in the government, echoing union defence minister Rajnath Singh from the day before, when he spoke of a "particular party".]

On the prime minister's statement earlier about having 'zero tolerance' on corruption, he said the government should then conduct an inquiry into the corruption allegations against the Adani group as well as into the electoral bonds.

Earlier in the day, Dr Hussain had accompanied Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh as well as Rajya Sabha LoP and party president Mallikarjun Kharge to meet chairperson (and vice president of India) Jagdeep Dhankar at the latter's invitation.

It was Dr Hussain who had led the no-confidence notice from the Opposition against vice-president of India Jagdeep Dhankhar in his de facto role of Rajya Sabha chair.

Based on PTI inputs