Bengaluru, March 31, 2018: The kind of Hindutva that is propagated by the Bharatiya Janata Party cannot work in India, actor Prakash Raj said at India Today Group's Karnataka Panchayat in Bengaluru today.
Raj was participating in a debate on The Culture Wars!' when he was asked about Kannadiga culture. "We have to give a feeling that everyone can live here... that everyone can live in harmony," Prakash Raj said.
Karnataka's culture is about plurality and harmony, Prakash Raj went on to say. "The sort of Hindutva they (the BJP) are propagating does not work here in this country."
Will Karnataka accept the BJP's form of Hindutva? "You will see it when the results (for the Karnataka Assembly election) come," Prakash Raj said when asked the question. "We are a very tolerant (state)... any religion or any Hindutva should be compassionate and tolerant about others (sic)."
Prakash Raj went on to draw an analogy between the diversity seen in nature to say that a society would not function without diversity.
Raj's allegations were rebutted strongly by Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Malavika Avinash who said, "I am Hindu and I am secular by nature."
"What are you (Raj) talking about," Avinash questioned as she went on to assert that Hinduism allowed for the existence of all religions and all beliefs.
"We (Hindus) have sustained thousands of years... of other religions coming in, we have allowed all to assimilate... being a Hindu is a culture in itself," Avinash said.