Saffron power to submerge democratic values: Hamid Ansari

Former Vice-President Hamid Ansari on Wednesday said Bharatiya Janata Partys success was "sectoral" and regional rather than at the national level. He said saffron partys ideology "seeks to submerge" the democratic values of diversity and inclusiveness.

Speaking at the book launch "Rise of Saffron Power: Reflections on Indian Politics," Ansari said: "Saffron ideology seeks to submerge the democratic values of diversity and inclusiveness in an alternate paradigm of exclusion and homogenization."

He said in the last four years, the BJP-led government had "failed" in its economic policies. "This is evident as grievances were being expressed by farmers, students and unemployed youth," he said.

He congratulated the author Mujibur Rahman and said this book would be an essential reading for anybody working on cotemporary Indian politics.

CPI lawmaker D. Raja said: "BJP coming to power is not change of government. It is the quality shift in Indian polity, which is emerging as the fascist regime.

"We are not only passing through economic or political crisis but we are witnessing a kind of ideological and philosophical crisis," he said.

--IANS

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