An Indian lawmaker is facing criticism for making offensive remarks against an army spokesperson in the aftermath of the conflict with Pakistan, with opposition leaders calling for his apology and resignation.
In a public speech on Tuesday, Vijay Shah, member of Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), suggested that Colonel Sofiya Qureshi was from the community of people who had attacked India.
Colonel Qureshi, assigned to brief the media along with foreign secretary Vikram Misri after the conflict broke out, is from the minority Muslim community.
India and Pakistan came perilously close to a full-scale war last week after the Indian military conducted missile attacks on what it alleged were terrorist training camps across the border.
Pakistan retaliated and, for four straight days, the two sides exchanged heavy firing across the border as well as drone and missile attacks on military installations.
India claimed it had conducted the 7 May strikes, dubbed “Operation Sindoor”, in retaliation for the massacre of 26 people, mostly Hindu tourists, in Kashmir on 22 April.
New Delhi blamed the rival nation for backing the gunmen who carried out the attack. Islamabad dismissed the accusation and called for an independent investigation.
India has long accused Pakistan of fuelling an armed separatist movement in Kashmir, the majority Muslim Himalayan region they both control in part but claim in full.
Speaking at a public event in Indore city, Mr Shah said Mr Modi had sent a “sister of their community” to teach the Kashmir attackers a lesson.
“They killed our Hindu brothers by making them remove their clothes,” the minister said, meaning the gunmen. “They made our sisters widows, so Modiji sent a sister of their community to strip them and teach them a lesson.”
Mr Shah drew immediate condemnation from opposition leaders who called his remarks “derogatory and shameful”. "A minister of the BJP government of Madhya Pradesh has made a very derogatory, shameful and cheap remark about our brave daughter Colonel Sofia Qureshi. The terrorists of Pahalgam wanted to divide the country, but the country was united during the entire Operation Sindoor to give a befitting reply to the terrorists," said Mallikarjun Kharge, head of the main opposition Congress party.
He called on Mr Modi to “immediately dismiss such a minister”.
Congress party leaders denounced Mr Shah's remarks as an “attack on national unity, military dignity, and the honour of Indian women”.
“Such comments were made only because Colonel Sofia Qureshi is a Muslim," Harish Rawat, former chief minister of the northern Uttarakhand state from the Congress party. said
Mr Shah said on Wednesday he regretted his remarks about the army colonel and that he was ready to “apologise ten times”.
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