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We believe that Iran has the right to develop a peaceful nuclear programme for energy purposes, says Tharoor. Image Credit: Francois Nel/Gulf News

Congress MP Shashi has defended his statement that if Bharatiya Janata Party  (BJP) comes to power after 2019 elections they will create a new constitution to make the country a ‘Hindu Pakistan’. 

'How can one apologise for reflecting their point of view accurately', Shashi Tharoor has reportedly told India media. 

The former union minister’s comments have received severe backlash from ruling BJP officials.  BJP spokesman Sambit Patra termed the comments shameless and many on the social media have been asking for him to apologise.  

Another BJP leader Subramanian Swamy said that Narendra Modi must check whether Congress leader Shashi Tharoor needs "medical help." "The prime minister should take pity on Tharoor, find out whether he needs medical help, and send him to a mental hospital if needed," Swamy told reporters in India.

Tharoor has said his statement was misconstrued by the BJP and offered an explanation through a Facebook post 

 

 

"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 said in the Facebook post.  

According to reports, Tharoor was delivering a lecture on 'Threats Faced by Indian Democracy and Secularism' in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala when the comments were made.

He said that if (BJP wins the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, it will create conditions leading to the formation of a 'Hindu Pakistan'. He said the BJP will write a new Constitution to pave way for of a nation, much like Pakistan, where rights of minorities are not respected.

“If they (BJP) win again in the Lok Sabha elections our democratic constitution as we understand it will not survive as they will have all the elements they need to tear apart the constitution of India and write a new one,” said Shashi Tharoor.

 

He said that it is becoming increasingly clear that the 'New India' Modi is trying to create will be built on the ruins and ashes of everything that was noble and precious about the old India.

The former union minister cautioned that this new constitution "will enshrine principles of Hindu Rashtra, that'll remove equality for minorities, that'll create a Hindu Pakistan and that is not what Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru, Sardar Patel, Maulana Azad and great heroes of freedom struggle fought for.”

He said under the BJP rule every democratic institution in the country has been under constant threat. “You look at the judiciary, the four judges issuing statement. You look at the CBI, we are now hearing itis a caged parrot.  You look at the police forces, they become very strongly under the political influence where BJP is in power," he said.

He said that even the media is not exempt from this. Even though the government doesn’t own the media, somehow it has found an effective way to persuade the media to stay in line, he said. “Every time a very critical story about any key BJP leader appears in the papers, somehow it disappears the next day from the website of the newspaper,” he said.

BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra slammed Tharoor’s remark and said it is a shameless statement. He said the Congress party doesn’t miss any chance to demean India and defame the Hindus.  

 

Congress president Rahul Gandhi should apologise for what Shashi Tharoor said, Patra said in an interview with ANI.