NEW DELHI: India's parliament erupted in anger on Wednesday after television footage showed a hard-line Hindu nationalist lawmaker apparently trying to force-feed a Muslim man during the fasting month of Ramazan.
Opposition Congress MPs launched raucous protests in the parliament, saying the lawmaker had violated the man's religious beliefs by aggressively trying to force a chapati in his mouth.
"It is absolutely reprehensible and should be condemned in the strongest possible manner," Congress party spokesman Manish Tewari later told reporters.
The lawmaker is from the hard-line Hindu nationalist outfit Shiv Sena, a key ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party which swept to power at May elections.
The incident is likely to fan concern among Muslims and other religious minorities over Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government.
The footage, aired on national television, showed a group of Shiv Sena lawmakers confronting a catering supervisor last Thursday in New Delhi.
The lawmakers were complaining about the quality of food offered at a guest house for officials from the state of Maharashtra, where Shiv Sena is based.
The footage showed lawmaker Rajan Baburao Vichare attempting several times to push the bread into the supervisor's mouth as a crowd gathered.
Shiv Sena member of India's parliament shoves a chapati down the throat of a Muslim Govt employee in Delhi https://t.co/N0pv1OvM1x
— omar r quraishi (@omar_quraishi) July 23, 2014
Vichare said he was not trying to break the supervisor's religious fast. Instead he was trying to demonstrate that the chapatis being served were too hard.
"This was only a protest against the quality of food and other arrangements at the Maharashtra Sadan (guest house) where all the important dignitaries come and stay," Vichare told Headlines Today news channel.
"The canteen management here is in a bad state. The chapatis they made didn't even break, the quality of vegetables and pulses is bad."
"Making this a religious issue doesn't make sense," he said.
The catering company's general manager said the supervisor had been "deeply pained and hurt" over the incident as "religious sentiments are attached".
The manager said the lawmakers had marched into the dining hall last week flanked by television crews and threw kitchen items around.
"They also issued physical threats to the kitchen and service staff while using highly objectionable language," the manager said in an email to a Maharashtra government official, which was obtained by the Indian Express newspaper.
Shiv Sena, which has a history of intimidation and creating unrest against minorities, won 18 seats at the election and is now the sixth biggest party in parliament.
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@dada: I do not care if Pakistanis and Indians understand your long long defence of this barbaric and uncouth act of an MP. The truth is his behavior needs strict action against him. All your story about Maharashtra Bhavan may be true but what right any one has to take law in his hand and degrade and torture a staff member. I am sure you will not dare to do some thing like this in any hotel and if you do you will be arrested for this barbaric conduct. This MP has put the entire parliament of India to shame and deserves no sympathy or justification.
@sudeep:
Be comforted Sir, for rest of India is ashamed of your lack of factual knowledge.
@someone:
"Now lets see, which country is better for Muslims. A country where a Muslim was accidentally forced feed or a country where the arms for a 10 year old boy were severed in the month of Ramzaan."
Good points.
This Indian MP incident is made into to a Hindu-Muslim issue by the leftists as part of their politically motivated agenda. Couple of years ago, a bunch of Muslims in Kerala hacked off the hand of a Christian professor in Kerala for cooked up blasphemy charge. At that time, there wasn't even a whisper about this barbaric religiously motivated incident from the bleeding heart leftists who are making hue and cry about this stupid MP "force-feeding" incident.
@All Misinformed How many of Pakistani thinks that Chapati was pushed till throat ? or even touched the tongue ?
X serves bad food, Y protest with anger and Creation of Pakistan gets justified.
@Patriotic Pakistani: You have no idea how how much thankful Indians are to Mr. Jinnah too. It is because Mr. Jinnah that India is relatively peaceful. Had there been no partition, India would have been a war zone every single day.
Now lets see, which country is better for Muslims. A country where a Muslim was accidentally forced feed or a country where the arms for a 10 year old boy were severed in the month of Ramzaan.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/740662/cruel-justice-landlord-severs-boys-arms-after-beating-him/
@Patriotic Pakistani: Yeah and this also one of the reasons why it failed
http://tribune.com.pk/story/740662/cruel-justice-landlord-severs-boys-arms-after-beating-him/
And irony is, not a single comment on this story from Pakistanis. SHAME.
The instinctive stereotypical response of the Pakistanis to make everything a Hindu-Muslim issue is not surprising.
While any violence should be condemned, and recognizing that the politician was wrong to physically assault, the guy was pretesting against bad quality of the food and was angrily reacting against the restaurant manager. Why is this a religious issue? The politician didn't even know anything about the restaurant manager's religion etc.
I wish that all of you in Pakistan had freedom to open any TV channel of India on 23 July 2014. You would have realized what India is. Every channel and every participant was condemning, decrying this act of the MP and demanding action against the MP. It looked as if entire India was seething with anger across party, religion, region lines. Even the people of the party of this MP were condemning his act. Believe me we in India accept with open mind and heart any wrong and try to take corrective action. We do not believe in denying and sweeping under carpet the wrongs. Yes we are not perfect. We do not want to justify but even in the most democratic countries like America innocent people like sikhs have been killed just for wearing a beard.Remember more Muslims live in India.
hmm, good to hear from you. If i say something truth, I am called Indian troll(very good). I never told, I am Pakistani (Where is the question of impersonation comes from) Lets talk about hypocrisy at our sides. You are saying building Babri Masjid, to prove that we are secular. OK OK good to hear. I do agree that it was not correct to demolish something that is sentimentally close to some religion. Having said that, can we go to the past. How did all the Muslim emperors, built their territory?
Is it via love, peace, affection, care etc...... no. Empires are built using war, injecting fear, superimposition of ideology etc...... So having said that the Muslim fraternity comes from middle east to occupy Indian lands posing their religion, ideologies on us(us include Indians + Pakistanis + Bangladeshis.....) Because some of us relent to their pressure, we might have been convert to their religions following what they said. That's why even today those real Arabs don't give equal status to us Muslims (I mean people from sub-continent). Do you want to prove me wrong. I would like to hear from you.
Please answer for any of the below questions. 1. Can you prove that you are an equal Muslim to that of an Muslim in Middle East 2. May be try to get married to their girls (that could prove it) or 3. Try to get citizenship in their land 4. Try to play a meaty role (Decision making roles) in their government etc.......
If any of the above can be done by you folks, I would agree that they treat you on par with their Muslims. Then you can talk about UMMAH of Muslims. To be very frank, you folks are never considered to be on par with the Muslims across the middle east. Same thing goes good with us too. So where is the pride of being Muslim or living in Muslim country comes from. Having said that, my country(as I told you, I am Indian Muslim), gives all the freedom to express myself. I got educated from the scholarship of Indian tax payers (the taxes would be paid by Hindus, Christians, Muslims ..... I don' know). So what I realized is, if you have talent, you can survive in India. So when compared to the other sides, there is not much discrimination like in middle east and your side.
Here is what I have to say to you. Babri Masjid was demolished before 2 decades for whatever reasons. Common public viewed that as a wrong precedent and that's why there are no such incidents similar to that in India. Can you say the same thing in Pakistan.
This is what I read from your side daily.
Tens of temples getting demolished every year (Google out for count in the last 5 years) Hindus driven away or forced for conversion Hindus, Christians and other minorities having to pay additional security tax to stay in Land of Purewhat else...........
I can bet that we are million times secular than anybody in the world. That's why the world accepts us as normal citizens. Whatever we do world accepts, the whole world comes and opens institutions, companies in India. Do you know, how many Pakistanis ought to say that they are Indians when they are in the Western World. You need India to safe guard you and survive in the western world. But always utter bad things about us every time.
I am not trying to blame you, but I would just give one advise. Unless and until somebody realizes that something is wrong with them, they would never correct their mistakes or come up in life.
@Daubic: yeah right you're an Indian muslim just like all other Indian trolls who sometimes impersonate as Pakistanis and as muslims to spew hatred on a pakistani news site :)..... I hope you guys build babri masjid someday, if India really is a secular country. yet to see the "beauty" of it :)
This incident is really idiotic to be precise rather than targeting a particular religion. Yes what the MP did is really stupid, when the food is not good, he should have behaved properly rather than try to force to insert the food on the person who served him. Having said that, it is most irresponsible by a person occupying a seat in parliament. But is it targeting a religion as most are suggesting here in this forum like, 1. Two nation theory is correct 2. Thank god Jinnah formed Pakistan 3. Feeling sorry for Muslims in India 4. For good sake my ancestors, moved out of Hindu Land like India to Pakistan etc....
Are these statements make sense in any way. To be very frank, I am an Indian Muslim and when I read this news in the local newspaper, I was discussing to my friends, whether these MP ever use their brain for any purpose. I felt this incident is more idiotic angry reaction rather than planned attack on religion sentiments. As a matter of fact this incident has not gone down with most of the Hindus & Christians in India, that's the beauty of the country. When a Hindu is attacked for some unfair reason, Muslim & Christian raise his voice and the reverse is also true.
Not fighting like I belong to different sectarian and you belong to different sectarian, so we are enemies. Please understand this is not a racial, religion abuse targeting a particular religion or race, this incident is an angry reaction of an individual person in power who has no brains or inactive brains. That's it.
@Aysha M: Sorry! But you can always go back!
Two Nation Theory proven right
India should stop emulating China and instead follow the good example set by Pakistan in its treatment of minorities.
Dear Maulana Azad, wish my grandfather had paid heed to your prophetic words, its all happening now
@iAppreciate: Muslim servant??? Who told you he was a servant? He was a worker of IRCTC.
whichever Indians are happy with shiv I hope something bad happens withthem we treat hindus in Pakistan really gratefully
Because of this, I'm glad once again that the partition happened, and whatnot. Only Pakistani Muslims have the right to torture, kill, or maim other Muslims, as we Pakistanis well know. Furthermore, if we torture minorities in Pakistan, it's not really grounds for a partition of Pakistan, because that's not logical.
Bottom-line is someone should teach our MPs that they have no right to physically manhandle anyone.
While this incident has religious hues and many Pakistanis here are solely concerned with a Muslim breaking his fast, the fact is that this incident is outrageous for many Indians as many strictly-vegetarian Hindus would wonder whether they are next and if some MP would shove chicken down his throat. Or Jains may wonder if an MP would force them onions.
@Indian: It does not matter how many other Indians may agree with you or not or whether you position has merit or not. The issue is simply that when you speak you only speak for yourself alone in your personal capacity. So post your comments accordingly. You have neither conducted a referandum of all the Indian people nor have they authorised you to speak for "majority" of them.
As a Pakistani, I thank all Indian friends here for denouncing the Gunda Gardi by one of their own, against a Muslim servant. There are good and bad people on both sides if the border, no doubt. After all, we were one nation a long while back, if not today.
Really really pathetic. I am so ashamed as an Indian.
Our political class, with rare exception, is an epitome of thuggery and this unfortunately extends across all parties.
We have a long way to go before we can call the political class normal humans, let alone pillars of society.
Now that's terrorism
Everybody praising Jinnah here please read the first sentence: "India’s parliament erupted in anger ......." How much anger Pakistani Parliament has ever shown over maltreatment of non-Muslims (or even some Muslims) in their country? None! So you guys will probably never understand how seriously India takes such incidents, and to what extent she will go to prevent them.
Every day we are reminded by hindu terrorists that how true was Quaid e Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah in his winning a separate homeland for us.
@ Another Indian - really? All the people I talked to agree this is an act of hooliganism of the highest order. I dont know where in India (or world) you are living in, but it will be hard to find people who support this kind of behaviour.
Shame on SECULAR India.
What we have done with Hindus in Pakistan is nothing compared to this incident.
The act is unacceptable and as an Indian I am personally ashamed. The 1di0t who did this belongs in jail. But I still thank Mr.Jinnah for creating Pakistan. Jinnah Zindabad !!
It is more a case of crude conduct.. Hypothetically, it is equally possible that a vegetarian Hindu employee would have a stale mutton-samosa shoved down his gullet by some other arrogant politician, may be a Muslim, somewhere else in India. IMO the real question is how can a people's elected representative behave like this with ANY human being at ANY time, fasting or otherwise & get away? However, the "mess worker" is a manager & had his Muslim name-tag prominently pinned on his chest. He also clearly said, loud enough, that he was fasting & not to do this. And yet the baboon from Shiv Sena went on with his behaviour safe in knowledge that nothing will happen to him since BJP is his ally after all. Together they form a special brand of Saffron-the only kind that stinks.
@Indian: Please speak for yourself and not for "most" Indians. You do not represent any Indian other than yourself
The land of milk and honey and the proclaimed largest democracy in the world do no wrong and there will always be some excuse put forward to hood wink the world. Would the people reprimand the MP,I doubt it very much. Where are those Indian Trolls now who has been spewing venom at Pakistanis at every chance they get. Now they are out there and defending the MP that he did not know the religion of the supervisor whom he demanded by name to come and present himself before his majesty and then confronted him. The Indian never do any wrong, they will always be reasonable to reason whatever they do even the Gujrat massacre, and then go on and elect the guy who was the Chief Minister and responsible for that massacre to become the Prime Minister. If I recall correctly this Modi guy was not allowed to enter the US.
Great Muhammad Ali Jinnah, RIP as you salvaged us from the slavery of Hindu Slaves,,,as the modern European democracy left by colonial powers would have made Muslims subjects of the Hindu Majority which for 1000 years had remained our subjects,,,RIP Quaid for your great vision
SHUKAR ALHAMDULILLAH I HAVE A COUNTRY OF MY OWN! Feel sorry for Muslims in India!
typical gunda gardi from Indian MPs, doesn't matter they are shivsena or some other party. Unnecessarily made into a religious issue. Nothing gained from this non-sense. Lack of accountability for people in power is the issue here which will not be solved unless institutions like police and courts can take cognizance and act against such things
Pakistani friends, its pitiful to justify creation of Pakistan on the basis of these acts. Pakistan was created in the last century, its done. Jinnah and Nehru were purely motivated by their ambitions for political power, nothing more, all else was political convenience. Human beings will create such acts if there is no check on them. Just cutting the pizza into more pieces does not create any more goodness as the ingradients are still the same
Wasn't it Indians jumping up and down out of their chairs on ET a few weeks ago lecturing over China's Ramadan policy in Xinjiang? Looks like India is not far from becoming Xinjiang.
it's unecessary to give a religious context to an act of pure hooliganism. The guy didnt have a beard or wear clothes which made it apparent that he was muslim. Infact if i were Arshad i would be more aghast at the misbehaviour of the rowdy politician rather than the breaking of my fast.
As a Muslim myself i condemn this incident but religion has nothing to do with it, That MP was complaining about quality of food being served & he does not know that Mess worker is a Muslim. But the behavior of that MP was not civilized.
Please don't make mountains out of molehills . The. 'Accused' has already justified and clarified his action .
This enlightens the importance of TWO NATION THEORY..
I am an Indian and like most of my countrymen, condemn this vigorously and call for punishment of the guilty. Really shameful.
"Vichare said he was not trying to break the supervisor’s religious fast. Instead he was trying to demonstrate that the chapatis being served were too hard. “This was only a protest against the quality of food and other arrangements at the Maharashtra Sadan (guest house) where all the important dignitaries come and stay,” Vichare told Headlines Today news channel."
LOL. Doing a crime and then not even apologizing about it. This is secular India ladies and gentleman. World's "biggest" democracy at your service. And mark my words, this MP will not be punished for this. Just wait, and watch.
Whenever I read news like, I just become so happy Muhammad Ali Jinnah did what he did. He foresaw all this, and thank God he accomplished his goals. I dont care how much the Indians berate Pakistan specially here at ET (they apparently think India is better than Pakistan) , I love my country. It's my country. We've already solved the hardest problem 67 years ago , which was actually acquiring Pakistan. These petty little problems that we now face, they'll be solved soon. But in conclusion, thank God I dont have to worry about some Shiv Sena thugs force feeding me.
So much so for secular India. Thank God we live in Pakistan.
This is the reason why Qaid-e-Azam created Pakistan.