Members of the BJP-affiliated Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) on Monday staged a protest near the constituency office of Thiruvananthapuram MP and Congress leader Shashi Tharoor against his “Hindu Pakistan” comment.
The BJYM protesters poured black engine oil on the office walls and gate and tied a banner with the words “Pakistan Office” on it. Tharoor was not at the office when the protest was staged.
The MP had, during an event in Thiruvananthapuram last week, said that another victory for the BJP-led coalition at the Centre could see the rise of a nation that undermines its minorities and the creation of a “Hindu Pakistan”.
Tharoor told reporters that the BJP was choosing to ignore the question whether or not it was pursuing the idea of a Hindu Rashtra and instead, resorting to violence.
“We have all been warned. The BJP’s answer to the simple question 'have you given up the dream of a Hindu Rashtra?' is apparently vandalism and violence. That is the face they have shown in Thiruvananthapuram today,” Tharoor tweeted later. Tharoor called the protest an “assault on democracy and freedom of expression”.
The BJP had reacted strongly to Tharoor’s views which the MP reiterated later, on his social media pages. He said the BJP/RSS idea of a Hindu Rashtra was the “mirror image” of Pakistan, a state with a dominant majority religion that sought to put its minorities in a subordinate place.
The state unit of the Congress has extended support to Tharoor. On Monday, Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala termed the Yuva Morcha protest “fascist”. Following a visit to the MP’s office by senior Congress leaders, party activists staged a protest against the BJYM.
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