Shashi Tharoor's comment that if BJP returns to power then a Hindu Pakistan will be created draws flak; Congress asks him to choose words carefully, while BJP seeks an explanation from Rahul Gandhi
Shashi Tharoor. File Pic/AFP
A major controversy brewed on Thursday over Congress leader Shashi Tharoor's remarks that a Hindu Pakistan would be created if the BJP returns to power with the Congress asking him to be restrained after the saffron party attacked him. The Thiruvananthapuram MP, however, refused to retract saying the BJP-RSS idea of a Hindu Rashtra remained the mirror image of the neighbouring "intolerant theocratic state".
"I have said this before and I will say it again. Pakistan was created as a state with a dominant religion that discriminates against its minorities and denies them equal rights. India never accepted the logic that had partitioned the country. But the BJP-RSS idea of a Hindu Rashtra is the mirror image of Pakistan — a state with a dominant majority religion that seeks to put its minorities in a subordinate place. "That would be a Hindu Pakistan and it is not what our freedom movement was fought for, nor the idea of India enshrined in our Constitution," Tharoor wrote on Facebook.
The Facebook post came in response to criticism from the BJP, which said "such kind of abuses for the Indian democracy" by Tharoor had become the constant feature of Congress. "By saying Hindu Pakistan you have attacked the democracy of India and the Congress has attacked the Hindus of the country. This is condemnable. This has been the nature of the Congress that while hating Modi, they have crossed all the lines and they start attacking the country," BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said. Patra asked Rahul Gandhi to explain Tharoor's remarks and apologise.
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