Growing intolerance matter of concern: Bhagat Singh's kin

Bengaluru, Oct 27: Grand nephew of freedom fighter Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Abhitej Singh Sandhu, today voiced concern over the growing intolerance in society, but did not hold any particular government responsible for it.

"I don't hold any particular government responsible for the growing intolerance on the basis of ideology and communalism," he said in an interaction with reporters here.

He was responding to a question whether the state governments or the central government should be responsible for incidents such as Dadri lynching over beef eating rumours and killing of rationalist Dr MM Kalburgi in Karnataka.

Sandhu said no individual should be blamed for the growing intolerance and people should understand which political parties were playing divisive and communal politics and unitedly defeat their nefarious intentions.

Asked if he was indirectly accusing BJP-led central government of being communal and encouraging fringe Hindutva elements, he said, "I don't blame one political party, but I have seen a contemporary pseudo-political party playing a role in dividing the society. I mean it causes a big damage to the people."

To a question whether he was referring to Congress as pseudo-secularist, he said, "No, I don't want to name the party."

Sandhu also said the government should declassify files and documents pertaining to revolutionaries, especially Bhagat Singh, which will spread awareness about him. He said people were hopeful of Modi government declassifying the documents and files of revolutionaries including Bhagat Singh.

"Why should the documents and files pertaining to revolutionaries be kept secret...Isn't it the duty of the independent country to put the past history on the public platform? The files must be declassified," Sandhu said.

Asked to comment on Hardik Patel's comments that he would walk on the path of Bhagat Singh, Sandhu said issues relating to caste and reservation is dangerous to the nation's fabric, and a debate on it shouldn't be held at all.

"If you want to have reservation, it should be based on economic structure and strata of the family. I don't think the masses are going to benefit from that," he said.

PTI