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Yatnal targets ‘intellectuals’ on Afghan crisis, stokes row
Yatnal said that Congress leaders like Rahul Gandhi, Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar who call themselves secular will not comment on the topic.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA from Karnataka Basangouda Patil (Yatnal) on Monday courted fresh controversy as he targeted the intellectuals in India by saying that those who were propagating to bring stranded Afghani nationals should be “gunned down”.
“The intellectuals in our country are not born to Hindus nor to our country but to the Taliban,” Yatnal said on Monday.
“If you ask me, those Talibans in our country, how they were shot down there (Afghanistan), these people should be shot down here. If we do not gun them down, then our Hindu religion or India will not survive,” he said.
Known for his hardcore right wing views, Yatnal has courted controversy with his statements many times in the past with his provocative speeches that go unchecked.
The statements come at a time when there is a raging debate in India whether to allow people from the war-torn country into India after the Taliban regained control over the middle eastern nation.
Yatnal said that Congress leaders like Rahul Gandhi, Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar who call themselves secular will not comment on the topic.
“If Narendra Modi was not the Prime Minister they would have imported all the Talibans,” he said.
“In any situation, other than Hindus and Sikhs, people from other religions should not be allowed to enter our country. If they (Muslims) say that they want to accept Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, let them come but look they are leaving their wife’s and running,” Yatnal said.
He even said that Bollywood actors like Amitabh Bachchan and others portray Pathans as brave warriors. He said that actors like Aamir Khan and other Khans who said that it was becoming unsafe for their children to live in India should send their children to Afghanistan to find out how safe it was there.
