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'India phobia': To Pak-origin UK MP's 'Islamophobia' tweet for Boris Johnson, Naqvi's strong reply
Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi advised UK Labour Party MP Naz Shah to not convert her ‘India Phobia’ into ‘Islamophobia’.
Union minister of minority affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Friday slammed UK Labour Party MP Naz Shah and said every citizen of India, including the minorities, is safe and secure as the UK MP on Twitter urged UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to raise the 'issue of Islamophonia' with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his two-day visit.
"Please, don’t convert your prejudiced agenda of “India Phobia” into “Islamophobia”. Every Indian citizen including Minorities is safe and secure in India. “Co-existence” is our commitment and “Inclusivity” is our culture," Naqvi replied sharply to Naz Shah's long Twitter thread in which she shared Indian news reports on recent incidents including the Jahangirpuri demolition row in Delhi, the Karnataka hijab ban, Uttar Pradesh's Sitapur rape threat incident etc. “Bulldozing homes of minority Muslims in India, amid rising tensions is serious!” she wrote urging UK PM Boris Johnson to take a look at her Twitter thread.
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"I ask @BorisJohnson when the alarm bells of genocide, the daily lynching of Muslims, calls for rape of Muslim women & the systematic nature Islamophobia in India is being normalised, as someone who claims to be a champion of human rights, will you raise these issues with PM Modi?" the Pakistan-origin MP tweeted on Thursday when Boris Johnson reached India. Speak on trade, internationalism but also on the human rights of 'minority communities in India and in Kashmir', the UK MP wrote.
"The rising tide of everyday hate & mob lynching against Muslims in India is becoming worrying. Dr Gregory Stanton who warned of early signs of genocide in Rwanda has now stated “There are early signs and processes of genocide” in India & Kashmir. Muslims beaten, threatened of rape and lynched has become a norm in India," Naz Shah wrote.
Boris Johnson's 2-day visit to India comes at a time when India has taken a neutral stance on the ongoing Russia-Ukraine crisis. After spending a day in Gujarat on Thursday, Boris Johnson is in New Delhi on Friday and has already spoken to PM Modi, foreign minister S Jaishankar.
Apart from minister Naqvi, BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla objected to Naz Shah's tweet and said he is proud to be an Indian Muslim and the youngest spokesperson of the party. Not that it is any of your business to lecture my country about human rights given the track record of anti-semitism you have but let me educate you... You have no locus on what is an internal & integral part of India but perhaps Naz Shah would like to tell us about atrocities done by Pakistan & ISI on Kashmiris in Pak Occupied Kashmir which is anything but Azad! But Naz won’t speak up," Poonawalla tweeted.
