Arts body board reconstitution a step towards creating Hindu rashtra: Yechury

Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Thursday said the reconstitution of the management of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts was "a sign of intolerance" and a step towards creation of a Hindu rashtra.

Yechury said reconstitution of various bodies represented an attempt at fulfilling the ambition of creating a Hindu rashtra by "subverting" the secular democratic structure.

"It is nothing but a sign of intolerance. The Modi government and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh from the very beginning are trying to subvert the democratic and secular set-up and establish a Hindu rashtra. They want to replace the history with Hindu mythology and theology. This reconstitution is nothing but a step towards creating Hindu rashtra," Yechury said.

After Nehru Memorial Society, the Modi government today reconstituted the management of Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts bringing in veteran Hindi scribe Ram Bahadur Rai as its head in place of Chinmaya Gharekhan, a former diplomat.

Yechury also criticised the Narendra Modi dispensation over its nod to the Logistics Support Agreement with the US and said the government was playing a "surrogate" to US imperialism.

"The Modi government is trying to play a surrogate to the US imperialism and that is why they are getting into defence deals with the US by compromising the sovereignty of our country," Yechury said.