New Delhi, November 15
Former minister and Congress leader Salman Khurshid on Monday posted pictures of arson at his Nainital home on his Facebook page asking if he was still wrong to say Hinduism was not about violence.
The arson came days after Khurshid triggered a controversy by drawing similarities between Hindutva and the ideologies of radical jihadi groups like ISIS and Boko Haram.
Khurshid was attacked by the ruling BJP for making the comparisons. His own party colleague Ghulam Nabi Azad disagreed saying: “The comparison is factually incorrect and an exaggeration”.
Posting the stark pictures including one of fire at the entry to his home, Khurshid said on Facebook on Monday: “So such is the 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.
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?”
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also later said that Hinduism and Hindutva were distinct.
Addressing a party workers’ training programme at Wardha on November 12, Gandhi said: “Can these be the same thing? Why do you use the word Hinduism, why not just use Hindutva, if they are the same thing?”
“They are obviously different things and so these are the types of things that we have to start to explore and understand and develop a group of people, hundred, five hundred, thousands of people, who deeply understand these differences, who can apply these differences to issues, to behavior, to action. Is Hinduism about beating a Sikh or a Muslim? Hindutva, of course. But, Is Hinduism about killing Akhlaq? In which book is it written? I have not seen it,” said Gandhi.
He said he had read the Upanishad but not seen references of violence or victimisation of others.
“I am unable to find in any Hindu scripture or even in Islamic scripture or in Sikh scripture that anyone can kill an innocent man. I can see it in Hindutva,” said Gandhi urging workers to understand and propagate the difference.
Only last week, Khurshid’s new book ‘Sunrise over Ayodhya’ was launched in Delhi.
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