Raipur : Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath said on Monday the word ‘secular’ was the ‘biggest lie’ told after India gained independence and the people responsible for using the word should apologise for it.
Adityanath was speaking at a function in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, and was responding to a question on communalism and secularism. He also said that any distortion” of history is akin to sedition.
Adityanath said, “Mera maanna hai ki azadi ke baad Bharat mein sabse bada jhooth dharmnirpeksh shabd hai. Nagrikon ke saath, Bharat ke logon ke saath… un logon ko maafi maangni chahiye, jinhone is shabd ko janm diya aur jo yeh shabd istemaal karte hai… koi vyavastha dharmnirpeksh nahin ho sakti. Rajneetik vyavastha panthnirpeksh ho sakti hai,” the Indian Express reported. (“I believe that after Independence, the biggest lie in India is the word secular…the people who gave birth to this word and who use it, should apologise. No system can be secular. Political systems can be neutral towards sects, but not secular.”)