Describing saffron colour as "religiously ideal" for Hindus, senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh today said he had never used the word "Bhagwa Aatankwad" (saffron terrorism).
"I have never used the word Bhagwa Aatankwad. I have used the term 'Sanghi Aatankwad' (Sanghi terrorism). Saffron is the ideal colour for us in religious matters," Singh, who recently completed "Narmada Parikrama," told reporters here.
He added, "The colour of terrorism is neither green nor saffron. It may be any religion, fanaticism spreads hatred and then terrorism is born."
Asked if the Congress was pursuing an agenda of "soft Hindutva" vis-a-vis BJP, Singh said, "There is no word as Hindutva in my dictionary. This word has nothing to do with the Hindu religion."
He alleged that Vinayak Damodar Savarkar coined the word "Hindutva" to give a militant hue to "Sanatan dharma".
Asked about the acquittal of Swami Aseemanand and four others in the 2007 Mecca Masjid blast case by the Special NIA Court in Hyderabad yesterday, the Congress leader said, "After this government (Narendra Modi government) came to power, I had already said the people of right-wing extremism involved in terrorist incidents would be acquitted."
Talking about MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's statement that there was a conspiracy behind the recent shortage of currency, Singh said demonetisation had completely failed.
He said, "There are BJP governments at the Centre and in Madhya Pradesh. Even if Shivraj (Singh Chouhan) is trying to say that there is conspiracy behind the scarcity of the notes, then this statement reveals their abilities."
Terming the idea of holding the elections of the Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies together as completely impractical in the Indian context, Singh said that it is not possible to implement such an election system in the country.
Describing the issue of Dalit identity as the "reality of Indian politics", he alleged the ruling BJP was responsible for recent conflicts between Dalits and upper caste communities.
He said, "It is obvious that lack of employment is creating frustration among the educated youths of upper castes. There is a lot of contribution to this by the people (BJP leaders) who are in government now. They had earlier ensured confrontation between Hindus and Muslims. Now they are creating a gap between Dalits and upper castes."
He also alleged that the Narendra Modi government did not take proper legal steps on the Supreme Court order on the provisions of the Scheduled Caste / Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
At the same time, the government's intelligence system failed to find out that Dalit outfits were going to organise "Bharat Bandh" on April 2 on such a large scale, he said.
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