‘Hate in India’: Cow is safer in India than a Muslim, says Tharoor

Congress MP hits out at Modi government over growing intolerance

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday quoted some ‘Bangladeshi friend’ to contend that a “cow is safer in India than a Muslim” to suggest ‘growing intolerance’ in the country, The Financial Times reported.

Participating in the debate on intolerance in the Lok Sabha, he said the Modi government cannot promote ‘Make in India’ while there is ‘hate in India’.

Targeting Narendra Modi for his ‘silence’, Tharoor said he was a ‘different person’ before becoming the prime minister remembering how he had avoided resorting to ‘divisive’ politics unlike any ‘clever politician’ when bombs exploded during his rally in Gandhi ground in Bihar in the run up to the Lok Sabha polls.

“The government must know you cannot promote ‘Make in India’ abroad while condoning ‘hate in India’ at home,” he said. India cannot sell itself to the world as a “land of pluralism, tolerance and Gandhianism while encouraging intolerance, communal hatred and minority insecurity within the country,” Tharoor said.



In this context, he said a Bangladeshi friend of his on a visit told him that “Islamic fundamentalists in his country were having a field day attacking India as a place where it is safer to be a cow than
a Muslim.”

The member from Kerala said Modi was ‘silent’ even when his party colleagues are resorting to ‘political polarisation’ in the country. “They are such explosives who can destroy Indian ideology,” he said as he went on to recite Urdu couplet ‘Mazhab nahi sikhata aapas mein bair rakhna (Religion does not teach animosity against each other)’.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 3^rd,  2015.