India will become 'Hindu Pakistan' if BJP wins in 2019: Shashi Tharoor

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has sparked a controversy saying that if Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wins 2019 Lok Sabha elections it will lead to the creation of a 'Hindu Pakistan'.

Tharoor said at an event in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday that the BJP will write a new Constitution which will pave the way for a nation, much like Pakistan, where rights of minorities are not respected.

"If they (BJP) win a repeat in the Lok Sabha our democratic constitution as we understand it will not survive as they will have all the elements they need to tear apart the constitution of India and write a new one," ANI quoted the Congress MP as saying.


"That new one will be the one which will enshrine principles of Hindu Rashtra, that will remove equality for minorities, that'll create a Hindu Pakistan and that isn't what Mahatama Gandhi, Nehru, Sardar Patel, Maulana Azad and great heroes of freedom struggle fought for," he added.

Meanwhile, criticising Tharoor's statement, the BJP demanded Congress president Rahul Gandhi's apology.

Speaking to ANI, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said, "Rahul Gandhi must apologise for what Shashi Tharoor said. Congress was responsible for creation of Pakistan because of its ambitions. Yet again it has gone ahead to demean India and defame Hindus of India."

Tharoor then hit back with a Twitter and Facebook posts saying his statement was "bizarrely misconstrued".

"Pakistan was created as a state with a dominant religion, that discriminates against its minorities and denies them equal rights. India never accepted the logic that had partitioned the country. But the BJP/RSS idea of a Hindu Rashtra is the mirror image of Pakistan -- a state with a dominant majority religion that seeks to put its minorities in a subordinate place. That would be a Hindu Pakistan," the FB post said.