TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: Almost a month after Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s controversial statement that Goan Catholics are ‘culturally Hindu’, senior national leader of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Venkaiah Naidu has echoed the same sentiments saying that ‘India is a Hindu nation in the cultural sense’.
“Hindu is a cultural identity of this nation. It is not a religion but way of life. It is not different from other religions. It is their cultural identity too,” Naidu said addressing a crowd of over 10,000 people gathered at SAG ground to felicitate BJP Member of Parliament Sripad Naik on his 60th birthday.
“India is called as Hindustan. There are different religions but the cultural identity of the country is Hindu,” he added.
In an interview to New York Times website, Parrikar had said that India was a Hindu nation in the cultural sense and the Catholics in Goa were also Hindus culturally because their practices don’t match with Catholics in Brazil except in the religious aspect, a Goan Catholic’s way of thinking and practice matches a Hindu’s.
Further, praising the state Chief Minister, Naidu said that Goa is fast moving towards being a developed State and it is an ideal model for the rest of the country, where despite multi-lingual and multi-religious lifestyle, all people live united.
“The State is a best example of unity in diversity,” he commented. Naidu said that people across the country speak about Goa, its rapid development and the political changes.
