Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, on the other hand, asked the BJP to take “legal action” against Sharma. The AIMIM, too, expressed similar views saying the suspension was a sham.
Hours after the BJP suspended its national spokesperson Nupur Sharma and expelled from the party Delhi unit’s media department head Naveen Kumar Jindal for objectionable remarks against Prophet Mohammad, the Congress on Sunday said the ruling party’s statement that it was against any ‘ideology which insults or demeans any sect or religion’ was a “blatantly counterfeit pretence” and a “sham attempt at damage control.”
The main Opposition party argued that the action against Sharma and Jindal came “obviously under duress of threats from external powers” which, it said, has exposed “the much touted muscular posturing and positioning of the BJP and the Narendra Modi government.”
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, on the other hand, asked the BJP to take “legal action” against Sharma. The AIMIM, too, expressed similar views saying the suspension was a sham.
Congress communication department head Randeep Surjewala said, “The placatory expulsion of two key members and spokespersons of the BJP from its primary membership, done obviously under duress of threats from external powers, exposes the much touted muscular posturing and positioning of the BJP and the Modi Government. Is the BJP sincere in course correcting? Is the BJP trying to atone for its immeasurable sins or is it more chameleon-like posturing?”
“Will the mob-lynching of our Constitutional ethos cease? Is repentance by the BJP and its leadership possible? A short statement by the BJP is unlikely to heal the millions of wounds inflicted on the ethos of Indianness,” Surjewala said.
Arguing that the “intrinsic character of the BJP and the Modi Government is now founded upon religious violence, divisive conservatism and nurturing hatred to secure vote-bank politics”, he said “the truth is that the BJP has pushed India into a dark age of religious polarisation to subserve its parochial political agenda in the short term”.
Taking a dig at Sharma, AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj said he has sympathies for Sharma as she faced action for the hate that the BJP spread day in and day out. “This is injustice. This is doublespeak,” he tweeted.
Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi said to feed “their domestic audience” with hate, the BJP had “put at risk thousands of Indians working in Middle East countries, damaged long standing relationships India has had and destroyed Indian businesses”.
Referring to Sharma’s remarks that among the first telephone calls that she had received after the controversy broke out was from the office of Home Minister Amit Shah, AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi tweeted: “FRINGE is MAINSTREAM. Backed by none less than Amit Shah. Is this why cops still haven’t arrested anyone? Suspension is a sham. Chota Savarkars were smug because of govt support. 20 crore Indian Muslims’ religious beliefs were insulted. Rather than addressing their concerns, Modi et al were more afraid of a foreign backlash. Very unfortunate.”
TMC leader and former Union minister Yashwant Sinha said: “BJP’s national spokesperson is now fringe element. What about the party itself? The fringe is unfortunately now in the centre. Modi hai to mumkin hai.”
Source:indianexpress.com