[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]A term that has been in use in recent years for the path Hindutva is striving for India to take –‘Hindu Pakistan’ – used by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor to say that is what the country would become if BJP is voted back to power in 2019, has provoked outrage from the ruling party.

MP from Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, Tharoor said on Wednesday that if the BJP returns to power with a majority in the Lok Sabha in 2019, it will change the Indian constitution and create of a ‘Hindu Pakistan’. Tharoor was addressing a lecture on ‘Threats faced by Indian democracy and secularism’ in the state capital.

Tharoor said that three factors stand in the way of the BJP: “So far, what they have been preventing them is three things — two-thirds majority in the Lok Sabha, two-thirds in the Rajya Sabha and half of the states. As you know, they have two-thirds in Lok Sabha and they have more than half the states. They have 20 states and coalitions in two others. The only thing they don’t have is a majority in the Rajya Sabha but because they have so many state governments and because state assemblies elect the Rajya Sabha, you can be sure in 4-5 years, they will have a majority in Rajya Sabha as well,” he said.

He continued, “So the great danger then is that if they are able to win a repeat of their current strength in the Lok Sabha, then frankly our democratic constitution as we understand will not survive because they will have all the three elements they need to tear up the Constitution of India and write a new one. That will be a new one which will enshrine the principle of Hindu Rashtra, will remove equality for minorities, that will create a Hindu Pakistan. That’s not what Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel and the great heroes of our freedom struggle fought for.”

The ruling BJP reacted with outrage and demanded his apology over his comments. Union Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore told ANI: “This is pure hallucination by Shashi Tharoor, I think this is withdrawal symptoms of the fact that neither they are in power nor do they see power coming to them again. It’s Congress that has infringed our Constitution & freedom of our citizens.”

Sambit Patra, a spokesperson for the BJP, accused the Congress of “defaming” India’s Hindus, and asked Rahul Gandhi, the party’s president, to apologise.

“Congress was responsible for creation of Pakistan because of its ambitions. Yet again it has gone ahead to demean India and defame [the] Hindus of India,” Patra said.

After facing criticism on his statement that India would become a Hindu Pakistan if the BJP assumed power next year, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor took to Facebook to defend his statement.

“Since some have bizarrely misconstrued my statement on the BJP seeking to turn India into a Hindu Pakistan, a short explanation of what the term means: 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.”

Congress cautioned Tharoor and urged him to keep “restraint and caution” even as he firmly defended his comments on the BJP making India a “Hindu Pakistan” if it comes to power in 2019. “Why should I apologise when they themselves enshrine the ideals of a Hindu Rashtra,” he told NDTV.

Speaking to NDTV on the controversy over his comment, Tharoor said: “It is clear that the BJP has stood for a Hindu Rashtra, it is a part of the official ideology of the party. The PM has asked the party to read about the thoughts and ideas of Deen Dayal Upadhya, who did not believe in the constitution. These leaders believe the constitution and nation should be built for Hindu people. The PM (Narendra Modi) has never said he disagrees with this.”

Asked to respond to BJP’s demand for Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s apology, he said this has always been his stand and he had said the same in 2013.

Not only Tharoor – many others have talked about the danger of India turning into a ‘Hindu Pakistan’. Apart from Indian writers and intellectuals, a Pakistani poetess Fahmida Riaz had written about India turning out to be just like Pakistan in a poem titled “Tum to bilkul hum jaise nikale”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1531400366246{border-top-width: 10px !important;border-right-width: 10px !important;border-bottom-width: 10px !important;border-left-width: 10px !important;padding-top: 10px !important;padding-right: 10px !important;padding-bottom: 10px !important;padding-left: 10px !important;background-color: #e5e5e5 !important;border-radius: 10px !important;}”]तुम बिल्कुल हम जैसे निकले

तुम बिल्कुल हम जैसे निकले

अब तक कहां छुपे थे भाई?

वह मूरखता, वह घामड़पन

जिसमें हमने सदी गंवाई

आखिर पहुंची द्वार तुम्हारे

अरे बधाई, बहुत बधाई

भूत धरम का नाच रहा है

कायम हिन्दू राज करोगे?

सारे उल्टे काज करोगे?

अपना चमन नाराज करोगे?

तुम भी बैठे करोगे सोचा,

पूरी है वैसी तैयारी,

कौन है हिन्दू कौन नहीं है

तुम भी करोगे फतवे जारी

वहां भी मुश्किल होगा जीना

दांतो आ जाएगा पसीना

जैसे-तैसे कटा करेगी

वहां भी सबकी सांस घुटेगी

माथे पर सिंदूर की रेखा

कुछ भी नहीं पड़ोस से सीखा!

क्या हमने दुर्दशा बनायी

कुछ भी तुमको नज़र न आयी?

भाड़ में जाये शिक्षा-विक्षा,

अब जाहिलपन के गुन गाना,

आगे गड्ढा है यह मत देखो

वापस लाओ गया जमाना

हम जिन पर रोया करते थे

तुम ने भी वह बात अब की है

बहुत मलाल है हमको, लेकिन

हा हा हा हा हो हो ही ही

कल दुख से सोचा करती थी

सोच के बहुत हँसी आज आयी

तुम बिल्कुल हम जैसे निकले

हम दो कौम नहीं थे भाई

मश्क करो तुम, आ जाएगा

उल्टे पांवों चलते जाना,

दूजा ध्यान न मन में आए

बस पीछे ही नज़र जमाना

एक जाप-सा करते जाओ,

बारम्बार यह ही दोहराओ

कितना वीर महान था भारत!

कैसा आलीशान था भारत!

फिर तुम लोग पहुंच जाओगे

बस परलोक पहुंच जाओगे!

हम तो हैं पहले से वहां पर,

तुम भी समय निकालते रहना,

अब जिस नरक में जाओ, वहां से

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