Thiruvananthapuram > Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has kicked up a huge row with his remarks that if voted to power again, the BJP will rewrite theConstitution and pave the way for creation of a "HinduPakistan".
Tharoor's comments prompted cries for apology from Congress president Rahul Gandhi for the "attack on Indian democracy and Hindus". "If they have been able to win a repeat of their current strength in the Lok Sabha, then frankly, our own democratic Constitution, as we understand, will not survive... because then they will have all the three elements they need to tear up the Constitution of India and write a new one.
"And that will enshrine the principle of Hindu Rashtra, that will remove equality for the minorities, and that will create a Hindu Pakistan...and that is not what Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru, Sardar Patel, Maulana Azad and great heroes of freedom struggle fought for," Tharoor told an event in Thiruvanthapuram yesterday.
BJP came out strongly aginst Tharoor's remarks calling it an attack on "Indian democracy and Hindus". They also demanded an apology from Congress President Rahul Gandhi.
A defiant and combative Tharoor took to Facebook to defend his comments, insisting that the BJP and RSS' idea of a Hindu Rashtra was the "mirror image" of Pakistan. "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 fought for, nor the idea of India enshrined in our
Constitution."- he wrote on Facebook.
Tharoor said many proud Hindus like him cherished the inclusive nature of the faith and had no desire to live, as their Pakistani neighbours were forced to, in an intolerant theocratic state.
"We want to preserve India and not turn our beloved country into a Hindu version of Pakistan," the Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram wrote.
Tharoor, however, got some support from former vice president Hamid Ansari. "I have not read what he (Tharoor) has said. But he is an educated man, a writer, an MP...and heads Parliament's committee on external affairs. Whatever he says, he will say after thorough consideration," Ansari told a TV news channel.
