Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Wednesday said that some people in the country are in the habit of calling secular persons as anti-national, and added that the long-cherished ideal of secularism is under a challenge at present.
"If you are secular, you are anti-national. If you are secular, you are speaking the language of Pakistan. If you are secular, your patriotism is in question," he said at a book launch here.
Chidambaram spoke about the constitutional citizenship developed by Jawaharlal Nehru and BR Ambedkar and the threat posed to this idea by the present regime.
"Many of us need to understand that as long as this was a theoretic idea formulated by Savarkar and Golwalkar, then we could leave the debate with a smile on our face.
"But when this becomes a political project and the government is willing to put its power, resources and authority to achieve this objective, then we need to pause and think as to what will happen to the concept of constitutional citizenship developed by Ambedkar, Nehru and others," he added.