Kerala PCC defends Tharoor's remark on 'Hindu Pakistan'

Backing party MP, Shashi Tharoor, the Kerala unit of the Congress today fully endorsed his remarks that if the BJP is voted to power, it will pave the way for creation of a "Hindu Pakistan." The support to Tharoor from the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee comes a day after the Congress national leadership disapproved of his remark that had triggered a huge row with BJP demanding an apology from Congress president Rahul Gandhi.

The Congress had also cautioned its leaders to choose words carefully while rejecting the saffron party's hatred. In a statement extending support to Tharoor, KPCC president Hassan said the remark that BJP would turn the nation into a theocratic state was a "general sentiment expressed by democratic and secular Congress workers."

"BJP would have done this already if that pary had enough number of its members in elected bodies," Hassan said.

Echoing similar views, Opposition leader and former KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala said "there is nothing wrong in Tharoor's statement."

Chennithala said Tharoor had given a warning that if BJP comes to power again, the nation would be turned into a Hindu Rashtra.

Chennithala said the statement was only to caution that BJP under Prime Minister Narendra Modi should not come to power again.

Tharoor, the Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram, who made the remarks on Wednesday, has said in a Facebook post that a state with a dominant majority religion that seeks to put its minorities in a subordinate place would be a Hindu Pakistan.