Wanted to expose double speak: Mohammad Salim

CPM MP Mohammad Salim, who sparked off a storm in Lok Sabha when he targeted home minister Rajnath Singh by citing remarks attributed to him in a newspaper, said his aim was to expose the "double-speak" in the government.

Talking to DNA after the furore during a debate on intolerance, Salim said what prompted him to raise the issue was "the root cause of intolerance was the seeds of hatred being sowed.., I will continue to expose the BJP."

Salim, the 58-year-old member from Raiganj in West Bengal, maintained that he had quoted a credible news magazine and that his purpose was to "expose the mindset of the government which believed that India was under servitude for more than 1200 years (an apparent reference to the Muslim rule)." So far, 200 years of British rule is seen as India's darkest period of servitude.

He said he wanted to bring to the notice of the nation the Prime minister's reference to 1200 years of "Gulami" at Madison Square and in Lok Sabha.

A Muslim Marxist MP, Salim said the Prime Minister was silent on comments made by "fringe elements" of the party and other Sangh Parivar outfits. "The Prime Minister should have spoken and government should have taken action against the fringe elements."

He said "for the government, dissent meant you are anti-national."