'Sick mindset': BJP slams Hamid Ansari for calling Ghazni 'Indian lootera'

New Delhi: The BJP on Friday slammed former vice president M Hamid Ansari for calling Mahmud of Ghazni an "Indian lootera", alleging that the Congress and its ecosystem romanticise foreign invaders and glorify anti-Hindu tyrants.

BJP national spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said Ansari's affection for foreign invaders and plunderers reflects his "sick mindset".

The BJP's retort came after Ansari was heard saying in an interview that those, including Mahmud of Ghazni, portrayed as foreign invaders and plunderers in history books were actually "Indian looteras".

"I have always said that the people we portray as foreign invaders in our history books are that there is one Lodi, someone is Ghazi and someone is that. They were all Indian looteras. They didn't come from outside. Politically, it's convenient to say that they destroyed this and that. But they were all Indians," the former vice president was heard saying in an interview to a journalist.

Sharing the video footage of Ansari's purported remarks on X, BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla slammed the former vice president for "eulogising" Ghazni who destroyed and desecrated the Somnath temple.

"After calling Sharjeel Imam and Umar Khalid as 'Yuva' (youths), now the Congress ecosystem and Hamid Ansari eulogise Ghazni who destroyed and desecrated the Somnath Mandir. The Congress ecosystem eulogises Mahmud of Ghazni -- they oppose Somnath Swabhiman Parv... they whitewash crimes of Aurangzeb and those who did atrocities on Hindus," Poonawalla said in a post on X.

"They hate Bharat and Hindus," he charged.

Latching on to Ansari's remarks, another BJP national spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari slammed the Congress and called the party "Modern India Muslim League".

"The Congress and its ecosystem romanticise invaders, glorify anti-Hindu tyrants like Aurangzeb and Babur, and sanitise the actions of those who looted India and destroyed Mandirs," Bhandari charged.

Hitting out at Ansari over his remarks, Trivedi said it is sad that a person who served as India's vice president makes such statements when the fact is that all the Mughal emperors ruled the country by reading the "sermon of Baghdad".

"Just as all the (British) viceroys ruled on behalf of the king or queen, all the Mughal emperors ruled as representatives of the Khalipha of Baghdad," the BJP spokesperson said.

"I think that by associating themselves with the looteras, a certain section of society is now beginning to associate the entire country of India with looteras. There is a need to get rid of such a defeated and demoralised mindset," Trivedi charged.

"Whatever the reason for such affection with plunderers, it shows that it is a sick mindset. This entire problem is the result of three Ms -- Mughal, Macaulay and Marx," the BJP Rajya Sabha MP added.