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'Today's fringe, tomorrow's mainstream': Congress' swipe at BJP over Prophet row
Without taking any name, Congress national spokesperson Pawan Khera said just because the international community did not take notice of the 'Goli maro' speech, that speaker is now an important minister in PM Modi's Cabinet.
The Congress on Wednesday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP over the action against Nupur Sharma and Naveen Jindal over the Prophet row and said India has been shamed for the last eight years on the global platform. "As a country, we had to face a lot of shame in the past week. The entire world had a beautiful image of India as a country which is proud of the kind of disparate contradictions that it has taken along," Congress national spokesperson Pawan Khera said. Also Read: On Prophet row, Shashi Tharoor says BJP-Centre distinction forgotten in 'overzealous' message
"The PM, the Union minister and the foreign minister have not spoken anything on hate speech in India. And all three of them are very fond of talking. The only occasion when Jaishankar's statements go viral is the time he borrows words from Nehru ji. Why are you silent now? Borrow from Nehru but speak up," Pawan Khera said.
Accusing PM Modi of suppressing the voice of the intelligentsia in the country by labelling them as 'Khan Market gang', 'Award Wapsi gang', 'Tukde tukde gang' etc, the Congress said the same government took action after foreign countries exerted pressure. "And what action did they take? They called their official spokespersons 'fringe'. How can PM Modi even afford to use the word 'fringe', while he himself went through the same journey? We have not forgotten his old speeches. Not only did he come through the same journey, but he resorts to the same tactic during elections. So if yesterday's fringe is today's mainstream, today's fringe will be tomorrow's mainstream," Pawan Khera said.
"Just because the foreign countries did not take notice of 'Goli maro' speech, that person is an important minister in PM Modi's Cabinet," Pawan Khera added.
On Sunday, the BJP suspended Nupur Sharma and expelled Naveen Jindal for their controversial statements. Several Muslim nations, including Indonesia, the UAE, the Maldives, Jordan, Bahrain, Libya, Qatar, Kuwait, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Afghanistan have raised the issue with India.
