Ongoing fight in nation between secular and communal ideologies: Sonia Gandhi

Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Thursday said that the nation was going through a sensitive stage where the ongoing fight was between the believers of secularism and development, and communalism and backwardness

"When a state progresses so does the nation but, today we are going through a sensitive period in which we need to decide whether we will broaden our outlook, and move towards development, or follow the old narrow ideologies," said Gandhi

"It is contest between secularism which is one of the most crucial aspects in laying the foundation of our nation, and communalism which leads to backwardness," she said

"A nation can only progress when people of every caste, class or religion works together in unity but, there are powers today that are trying to derail Mahatma Gandhi's ideology, and we must fight them," she added

She further said that the Muslim population was benefiting a lot from the education schemes implemented by the government

"Every child has the right to free education till primary section, and even the children in the rural areas are getting contemporary education for which we are providing financial aid," said Gandhi

"The Muslim population has also benefited from this, which is very evident from the fact that a lot of Muslim children have taken admission in schools, in which the ratio of girls is really good," she added

Gandhi laid the foundation stone of Aligarh Muslim University's (AMU) Centre in the Kishanganj district today.

Union HRD Minister M Pallam Raju and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar were also present on the occasion.