Former Law Minister Salman Khurshid’s house in Uttarakhand’s Nainital was vandalised on Monday by a mob to protest against his remarks in a recent book drawing a parallel between Hindutva and terror outfits like the ISIS.
News agency PTI quoted Nainital (City) Superintendent of Police (SP) Jagdish Chandra as saying that a group of people damaged windowpanes and set fire to a door at the house that comes under the Bowali police station area.
The police officer added that none was hurt in the house that is looked after by caretakers.
Mr. Khurshid posted several clips of the incident on his Facebook page, in which the caretakers can be seen trying to douse the fire. In some of these clips, the protestors could heard using derogatory comments against Muslims and words like “traitors” were used.
“I hoped to open these doors to my friends who have left this calling card. Am I still wrong to say this cannot be Hinduism,” Mr Khurshid asked on Facebook.
In another post, he said, “So such is debate now. Shame is too ineffective a word. Besides, I still hope that we can reason together one day and agree to disagree, if not more”.
Rallying behind Mr. Khurshid, Lok Sabha member Shashi Tharoor tweeted, “This is disgraceful. Salman Khurshid is a statesman who has done India proud in international forums and always articulated a moderate, centrist, inclusive vision of the country domestically. The mounting levels of intolerance in our politics should be denounced by those in power”.
The attack on Mr. Khurshid came just days after the release of his book, ‘Sunrise over Ayodhya: Nationalism in Our Times’, in which he made the controversial comparison between Hindutva and Islamic terror outfits.
The book not only drew sharp criticism from the BJP, but also his colleague, Ghulam Nabi Azad, who had said “the comparison is factually incorrect and an exaggeration”.
However, virtually addressing a training programme of party workers at Maharashtra's Wardha, former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi said Hinduism and Hindutva were not the same things.
(With PTI inputs)
