Congress veteran A.K. Antony said his son Anil's decision to join the Bharatiya Janata Party was wrong and that it had pained him. The former defence minister said he will remain a Congress worker till his last breath and continue to oppose all the wrong policies of the RSS and the BJP.
"I am pained by my son Anil's decision to join the BJP. I strongly feel it is a very wrong decision,” he said.
Antony, a former chief minister of Kerala, alleged that ever since the Narendra Modi government came to power in 2014, it has been systematically diluting diversity and secularism of the country. He also accused the BJP and the RSS of destroying the country's constitutional values.
“Till my last breath, I will oppose all the wrong policies of RSS and BJP. They are destroying the country's constitutional values. I will die as a Congress worker. I am 82. I do not know how long I will live," Antony said.
Anil Antony, who headed the Digital Media cell of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee before quitting the party in January, joined the BJP on Thursday in the presence of Union ministers Piyush Goyal and V. Muraleedharan in Delhi.
"This is not about personalities, this is about difference of opinion and ideas. I strongly believe that I have taken the right step. My respect for my father will remain the same," Antony said when asked whether he had consulted his father before joining the BJP.
Anil had quit the Congress after criticising the party's stand on the controversial documentary film of the BBC on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
