A Kolkata Magistrate Metropolitan Court had issued arrest warrant against Congress leader Shashi Tharoor in connection with case filed by Sumeet Chowdhury over his Hindu-Pakistan comment.
Kolkata Magistrate Metropolitan Court issues arrest warrant against Congress leader Shashi Tharoor in connection with a case filed by an advocate Sumeet Chowdhury over Tharoor’s ‘Hindu-Pakistan’ comment. (file pic) pic.twitter.com/HiqiKCBZVa
— ANI (@ANI) August 13, 2019
The warrant issued pertains to a remark made by Tharoor last year. Advocate Sumeet Chowdhury had filed a case under Section 153A/295A of the Indian Penal Code and Section 2 of The Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971. Chowdhury said that the reason behind his registering a case was that the politician wantonly insulted the nation by questioning its secular credentials, besides refusing to apologise for the same.
In July 2018, Shashi Tharoor had said that if BJP won 2019 Lok Sabha elections, it would create a condition leading to the formation of a “Hindu Pakistan”.
While addressing an event in Thiruvananthapuram, Tharoor had stated that the BJP will compose a new constitution which will turn a secular India into much like Pakistan, where the rights of minorities are trampled upon.
“If they (BJP) come back in power again, our democratic constitution will be violated and they will radically alter it” the Congress leader had said.
Tharoor had further added, “The new constitution will do away with the principles of equality and instead enshrine Hindutva beliefs, stripping the minorities of the equality and relegating them to second-class citizens, which the great founders of this country-Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel, Nehru and Maulana Azad would not have wanted.”
Though Congress and its leaders are known for their derogatory remarks and false equivalences, they also have the tendency to stand by defending their statements with impunity. Tharoor had not only stood firm to his statement but also refused to apologise for the same. Not only that, even the Congress party did not openly condemn the statement but gave an excuse that what Tharoor said was in his personal capacity.
Amusingly, the ‘Why I am a Hindu’ author was busy promoting his new book ‘The Hindu Way: An Introduction to Hinduism’ on Twitter when the arrest warrant was issued.
