Trouble for Shashi Tharoor, Kolkata court issues arrest warrant over Congress MP's 'Hindu Pakistan' remark

Kolkata Magistrate Metropolitan Court has on Tuesday issued an arrest warrant against Congress MP Shashi Tharoor for his remarks regarding the formation of "Hindu Pakistan" that he made last year in Delhi. A warrant has been issued against the Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram based on a case filed by Advocate Sumeet Chowdhary.

In July 2018, Shashi Tharoor had stated that if BJP won the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, it would create a condition leading to the formation of a "Hindu Pakistan". He had made the statement while addressing an event in his constituency in Thiruvananthapuram. In his statement, Tharoor had targeted the BJP saying that the saffron will write a "new Constitution" if it wins the 2019 polls, which will pave way for a new nation, much like Pakistan.

"If they (BJP) win a repeat in the Lok Sabha, our democratic constitution as we understand it will not survive as they will have all the elements they need to tear apart the constitution of India and write a new one...and that new one will be the one which will enshrine principles of Hindu Rashtra, that will remove equality for minorities, that will create a Hindu Pakistan and that isn't what Mahatama Gandhi, Nehru, Sardar Patel, Maulana Azad and great heroes of freedom struggle fought for," Tharoor had said.

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Shashi Tharoor 'Hindu Pakistan' Controversy

Earlier in July 2018, following the controversy over his 'Hindu Pakistan' remarks, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor was also summoned by Kolkata court. Tharoor was summoned after Kolkata based advocate Sumeet Chowdhury filed a case against him under Section 153A/295A of the Indian Penal Code and Section 2 of The Prevention Of Insults To National Honour Act, 1971.

The advocate’s petition against Shashi Tharoor stated that ‘Tharoor's comments hurt religious sentiments of the countrymen, insulted the Constitution, and has been intended to create great conflict and disharmony based on the religious divide.’

Congress leader's shocking justification

In the aftermath of the controversy over his remarks, the Congress MP had also issued an 'explanation' in his defence. Taking to Twitter, he had penned down a post justifying the meaning of his remarks. In the post, he had not only fearmongered about "BJP/RSS idea of a Hindu rashtra", but had also claimed that it would be "the mirror image of Pakistan-- a state with a dominant majority religion that seeks to put its minorities in a subordinate place". 

He also added that "That would be a Hindu Pakistan, and it is not what our freedom movement fought for, nor the idea of India enshrined in our Constitution".

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(With agency inputs)