Hindu right-wing outfits have welcomed Ghulam Nabi Azad's statement that "majority of Muslims in the country have converted from Hinduism."
Speaking to PTI, Bajrang Dal national convener Neeraj Douneriya said, "Ghulam Nabi Azad’s statement is a favourable indication as even Bajrang Dal, since a long time, has said that the Muslims and Christians in the country have converted from Hinduism".
VHP leader Vinayakrao Deshpande said, “I welcome Ghulam Nabi Azad's statement in which he said that the Hindu religion is older than Islam, and that Kashmiri Muslims were Hindus.”
Addressing a gathering in Jammu and Kashmir's Doda district on Thursday, Azad said a majority of Indian Muslims have converted from Hinduism, adding that an example of this can be found in the Kashmir Valley where a majority of Kashmiri Pandits converted to Islam.
Asserting that religion should not be used to get political mileage, Azad said whoever takes refuge in religion, their politics is weak.
"Some BJP leader said some (Muslims) have come from outside and some have not. Nobody has come from outside or inside. Islam came to existence just 1,500 years ago. Hindu religion is very old. Around 10-20 of them (Muslims) must have come from outside, some were there in the Mughal army," the DPAP chief said.
"All other Muslims converted from Hinduism in India. An example of this can be found in Kashmir. Who were the Muslims in Kashmir 600 years ago? All were Kashmiri Pandits. They converted to Islam. All are born into this religion," the former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir said.
Welcoming his statement, senior BJP leader Kavinder Gupta said the people used to practise Hinduism before "invaders" brought in other religions.
"The timeline given by Azad about the inception of Islam in India is true," said Gupta.
Gupta said that unveiling the history of Kashmir would also reveal that not more than 600 years ago, there were no Muslims in Kashmir as everyone there were Hindu.
It was the "invaders" who converted them to Islam and "those who refused were killed brutally", he said.
However, Azad's comments were not received positively by another section.
Taking a dig at him, People's Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti said, "I don’t know how far back he went (in time) and what knowledge he has about his ancestors. I would advise him to go way back and maybe he will find some apes there in the ancestors.”
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Manoj Jha hit out at Azad as well. "Humanity should take precedence over all other considerations – whether it be religion, borders, nationality, or civilization", said the Rajya Sabha MP.
(With PTI inputs)