Farooq Abdullah has no moral right to preach against communalism, retorts Modi

Invoking India's age-old tradition of secularism and syncretism, the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, accused by critics of practicing Hindutva politics, said these high values are the best policies for India and it is his commitment to “take everybody along and develop all”.  

“I want to tell Farooq Abdullah that the thousands of years-old great tradition of secularism in India suffered its biggest and deepest blow in Kashmir. And this happened due to the politics of your father, due to your politics and due to you son's politics.

“Kashmir is the only place in this country where Pandits were evicted due to their religion. Kashmir was the land of sufi traditions... and it has been tarred with communal colour by you for selfish interests,” Modi said.  

Apparently referring to controversial statements, many by his aides, during the current campaign, he said Indian secularism is not so poor as to be affected adversely by some comments.

“Country is not going to deviate from its values of jai jagat (victory to world) and vasudaiv kutumbakam (world is a family),” he said.