Mumbai, Oct 25 (PTI) Former Union minister Yashwant Sinha Thursday claimed that politics in the country today was based on "exploiting" people's differences.

He was speaking at a function to launch a book titled "Legacy of India" here.

A debate on India's pluralism, tolerance and peaceful co-existence was organised on the occasion by NGO Wisdom Foundation.

"Today's politics is based on exploiting differences among people on the basis of religion, caste, region, language etc and that needs to be reformed. We need to reform the present political system so that it works as a unifier," Sinha said.

Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha said that the secular ethos of the country was witnessed in 2004 when a Christian, Sonia Gandhi, made way for a Sikh, Manmohan Singh, to become Prime Minister who was sworn in by a Muslim president, APJ Abdul Kalam, in a country where over 79 per cent of the population are Hindus.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)