Janata Dal (United) Secretary-General KC Tyagi on Monday said that he and his party are Gandhiwadi (followers of Mahatma Gandhi) and believe that Hindus and Muslims and peacefully co-exist. He remarks came in response to a media query about Congress leader Shashi Tharoor's observation that Pakistan's founding-father Muhammad Ali Jinnah's victory "will be completed if the new citizenship law leads to the NRC" that threatens to deprive a large section of India's population of their citizenship on religious grounds.
"We are Gandhiwadi and we think that Hindus and Muslims can live together. Those who wanted to go with Jinnah went (to Pakistan) in 1947," Tyagi said.
The Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) has supported the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019, in both Houses of Parliament and helped in its passage. The move has led to a stir in the JD(U) party with senior party leaders Prashant Kishor and Pavan Varma taking strong exception to the party's stance on the controversial law.
Recently, party president and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said that Pavan Varma, a retired diplomat, was free to join any party he liked.
On a question about actor Naseeruddin Shah collecting signatures of 300 prominent persons against the CAA and National Register of Citizens (NRC), Tyagi on Monday said that everyone had a right to express their opinion in a democratic country.
"Political activists, film activists, social activists... everyone has a right to give their opinion in a democracy," Tyagi said.
( With inputs from ANI )