Indian politician courts controversy over 'Hindu Pakistan' comment

Indian politician Shashi Tharoor has courted controversy for saying the BJP would make India a "Hindu Pakistan" if it came to power in 2019.

Tharoor's party, the Congress, has urged him to keep "restraint and caution" but Tharoor firmly defended his statement to NDTV saying: "Why should I apologise when they enshrine the ideals of a Hindu Rashtra?"

The BJP has demanded Tharoor apologize for the comment that he made during his lecture on the "Threats faced by Indian Democracy and Secularism."

Tharoor had said the country will be in great danger if "they (BJP) are able to win a repeat of their current strength in the Lok Sabha. Then frankly our democratic constitution as we understand will not survive because they will have all the three elements they need to tear up the Constitution of India and write a new one. That will be a new one which will enshrine the principle of Hindu Rashtra, will remove equality for minorities, that will create a Hindu Pakistan and that isn't what Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru, Sardar Patel, Maulana Azad and great heroes of freedom struggle fought for."

Defending his statement, Tharoor took to social media platform Facebook to say that the BJP's idea of a Hindu Rashtra is the mirror image of Pakistan, which was created as a state with a dominant religion that discriminates against its minorities and denies them equal rights.

Tharoor wrote on Facebook: "The BJP/RSS idea of a Hindu Rashtra is the mirror image of Pakistan -- a state with a dominant majority religion that seeks to put its minorities in a subordinate place. 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.

"Many proud Hindus like myself cherish the inclusive nature of our faith and have no desire to live, as our Pakistani neighbours are forced to, in an intolerant theocratic state. We want to preserve India and not turn our beloved country into a Hindu version of Pakistan.”