Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Nov 15: The Nainital home of the Congress leader Salman Khurshid, in the midst of a controversy over his book on Ayodhya, was vandalized and set on fire by a group of people, who also believed to have left behind a visiting card apparently to claim credit for the violent act, on Monday.
Visuals shared by Khurshid on the social media show tall flames, charred doors and shattered window panes at his Nainital home. Two men are seen trying to douse the fire by throwing water.
Sharing the visuals, the Congress leader said in a post, “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?”
“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,” he wrote in another post.
The former Union Minister has been under the spotlight ever since the launch of his new book, ”Sunrise Over Ayodhya: Nationhood in Our Times.” At the centre of the controversy is a passage that reads, “Sanatan Dharma and classical Hinduism known to sages and saints were being pushed aside by a robust version of Hindutva, by all standards a political version similar to the jihadist Islam of groups like ISIS and Boko Haram of recent years.”
The BJP hit out at Khurshid Holding his remark to be drawing a parallel between the Hindutva and the Muslim terror forced and claimed that his comments had hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus. The party had also alleged that the Congress was resorting to “communal politics” to corner Muslim votes. The Congress had distanced itself from his comments claiming this was to be his personal views and some of the Congress leaders with the former Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat even advised Khurshid to withdraw the comments and the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad holding the comparison to be “exaggerated.”
“We may not agree with Hindutva as a political ideology but comparing it with ISIS and Jihadist Islam is factually wrong and exaggeration,” Azad had said.
The BJP, however, did not stop slamming Khurshid and had even demanded an apology from the Congress national president Sonia Gandhi. The former party president Rahul Gandhi had sought to differentiate between Hinduism and Hindutva claiming that the Congress ideology was for the nationalist Hinduism while Hindutva was the concept ideologue by the RSS and preached hatred between religious groups.
The fire incident on Khurshid’s house was denounced by several Congress leader while the DIG (Kumaon) Neelesh Anand said a case had been registered against 21 people in connection with the incident. “Rakesh Kapil and 20 others have been booked. Strict action will be taken against perpetrators,” he said.
Congress leader and MP Shashi Tharoor slammed the incident. “This is disgraceful. @salman7khurshid is a statesman who has done India proud in international forums & 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.” Multiple police complaints have been filed against Khurshid over his comment in the book.
