‘Modi out to destroy India’s secular unity': CPM leader Mohammad Salim

Veteran Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM) leader Mohammed Salim on Sunday lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the latter's ‘infiltrator’ remark at one of his Lok Sabha election rallies.

In an interview with Hindustan Times' Kumkum Chadha, Salim, who is contesting the upcoming elections from West Bengal's Murshidabad, said the prime minister is turning minorities into ‘d-voters’, equating them to infiltrators and sending them to detention camps.

‘PM Modi’s infiltrator remark uncalled for'

Referring to PM Modi's remark, Salim said,"If you (Modi) are holding a post, you should play fair to it. We know that it is an RSS campaign all along. How can you divide the population on the basis of religion and stigmatise a section?"

ALSO READ: How Opposition leaders reacted to PM Modi's 'Muslims…wealth to infiltrators’ remarks

“First they (BJP) started with illegal Bangladeshi migrants, then infiltrators, then Rohingya and jihadi. Now the prime minister is just stigmatising. He does not know what is going to be the fallout,” the 66-year-old Marxist politician said.

“It is a direct attack on our secular democratic republic. The RSS culture is one nation, one religion, one culture, one party and one leader. That's fascism,” the CPM leader added.

ALSO READ: ‘I will not do Hindu-Muslim’: PM Narendra Modi amid ‘infiltrators’ row

What is the danger behind PM Modi's remark?

Salim claimed that Prime Minister Modi is on a ‘sticky wicket’. “The same prime minister who used to talk about development, how has he forgotten all those issues? He is now talking about Hindu, Muslim, Mandir and Masjid, infiltrators.”

“The fallout is that you (Modi) try to divide the population. You are looting the nation and selling off the country's property,” Salim added.

The CPM leader said that with the formation of INDIA bloc, the whole nation is one to ‘reclaim the secular democratic republic’. He accused Modi of trying to destroy the secular unity.

“We are seeing the fallout in Manipur where the Nagas and Kukis used to live together. With the double engine government in the state, people are fighting against each other,” he added.

“Neither the state home department nor the Union home ministry is capable of preventing the riots,” Salim added.

Continuing his attack on Modi, Mohammad Salim added," He is still occupying the prime minister's chair. He is not a pracharak at his moment. He has taken oath not to discriminate among people based on caste, language, so why is he doing that?"

“The prime minister should see that majority or minority, Hindus or Muslims, Christians or Sikhs, all are same for him,” he added.