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'Like Osama Bin Laden preaching peace': BJP slams Pak remarks on Ram Temple flag-hoisting
After Prime Minister Narendra Modi hoisted the flag at the Ayodhya temple, Pakistan issued a statement calling the event an attempt to erase Muslim heritage.
After the ministry of external affairs (MEA), the BJP hit out at Pakistan for its remarks on the Ram Mandir flag-hoisting ceremony, saying the neighbouring country talking about rights of minorities is like "Osama bin Laden preaching about world peace".
"Pakistan should be the last entity that should lecture anybody on rights of minorities and human rights. Look at their own track record and they are doing it on the day of 26/11, the day when they carried out the most dastardly terrorist attack and claimed many many innocent lives," BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said.
After Prime Minister Narendra Modi hoisted the flag at the Ayodhya temple on Tuesday, Pakistan issued a statement calling the event an attempt to erase Muslim heritage and a reflection of pressure on religious minorities in India. The Babri masjid in Ayodhya was demolished on December 6, 1992
Hitting back, the BJP urged Pakistan to do some introspection and reminded the border nation of persecuting "not just Hindus and Sikhs but even Agha Khanis, Shias, Balochis and Ahmadiyyas".
"Even various communities within Pakistan are persecuted by the Pakistani ISI Army infrastructure. So they should be the last person preaching," Poonawalla added.
He further trained guns at the Indian Opposition, saying that Pakistan's rant on Islamophobia and Hindutva in India was "eerily similar to the narrative that is being spoken of by the leaders of opposition, particularly the Congress Party and Trinamool Congress."
Before the BJP, the MEA also lashed out at Pakistan for its remarks. Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, responding to questions at the weekly media briefing, said Pakistan has no moral standing to lecture others.
"We have seen the reported remarks and reject them with the contempt they deserve. As a country with a deeply stained record of bigotry, repression and systemic mistreatment of its minorities, Pakistan has no moral standing to lecture others. Rather than delivering hypocritical homilies, Pakistan would do better to turn its gaze inwards and focus on its own abysmal human rights records," he said.
As part of the Dhwajarohan Utsav on November 25, PM Modi hoisted a saffron flag atop the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Temple’s shikhar (peak) in Ayodhya, marking the completion of the Ram Mandir’s construction. The flag measured 10 feet in height and 20 feet in length and had the image of a radiant Sun with an ‘Om’ inscribed on it.
