India
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday said he will "show" the Narendra Modi government "how to treat minorities", amidst a controversy over Bollywood actor Naseeruddin Shah's remarks on mob violence in India.
Updated : Dec 23, 2018, 05:31 PM IST
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday said he will "show" the Narendra Modi government "how to treat minorities", amidst a controversy over Bollywood actor Naseeruddin Shah's remarks on mob violence in India.
Shah finds himself at the centre of a major controversy over his remarks on the spate of mob lynching cases in India following the killing of a policeman in Uttar Pradesh's Bulandshahr district earlier this month.
Reacting, AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi reiterated that India didn’t need to learn about ‘inclusiveness’ from Pakistan. He wrote:“According to the Pakistani Constitution, only a Muslim is qualified to be President. India has seen multiple Presidents from oppressed communities. It's high time Khan sahab learns something from us about inclusive politics & minority rights.”
According to the Pakistani Constitution, only a Muslim is qualified to be President. India has seen multiple Presidents from oppressed communities. It's high time Khan sahab learns something from us about inclusive politics & minority rights.https://t.co/qarmZkqdhH
— Asaduddin Owaisi (@asadowaisi) December 23, 2018
Khan on Saturday said that he will "show" the Narendra Modi government "how to treat minorities", amidst controversy over Shah's remarks on mob violence in India.
Rebuking Khan, the Naseeruddin Shah told The Indian Express, “I think Mr Khan should be walking the talk in his own country instead of commenting on issues that don’t concern him. We have been a democracy for 70 years and we know how to look after ourselves.” Shah finds himself at the centre of a major controversy over his remarks on the spate of mob lynching cases in India following the killing of a policeman in Uttar Pradesh's Bulandshahr district earlier this month.
In a video interview with Karwan-e-Mohabbat India, the veteran actor said the death of a cow was being given importance over the killing of a policeman in India.
He said the "poison has already spread" and it will be now difficult to contain it.
"It will be very difficult to capture this djinn back into the bottle again. There is complete impunity for those who take law into their own hands...I feel anxious for my children because tomorrow if a mob surrounds them and asks, 'Are you a Hindu or a Muslim?' they will have no answer. It worries me that I don't see the situation improving anytime soon," Shah added.
The BJP Sunday lashed out at Pakistan Prime Minster Imran Khan over his barb at India on treatment of minorities, terming his country "a land of atrocities against minorities" who have been "persecuted" there since its birth in 1947.
Minorities Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi used a Hidni proverb and described Khan's comments as a case of a cat going on a pilgrimage after eating 100 mice (Sau chuhe khake bill Haj ko chali).
In hard-hitting remarks against Pakistan, Naqvi said that number of minorities like Hindus, Sikhs and Christians have fallen by almost 90 per cent in that country since its birth in 1947 as they were hounded by Islamic fundamentalists in collusion with its government..
Unlike Pakistan, where minorities were killed, forced to convert or persecuted out of the country, in India they have grown and are an equal partner in development, Naqvi asserted. In the neighbouring country, minorities are barely two to three per cent of its population, he said.
Targeting Khan, Naqvi named a number of popular Indian artistes, including Yusuf Khan better known as Dilip Kumar, and Aamir Khan, Salman Khan and Shahrukh Khan, and noted that generations of Indians have admired them.
"Can Imran Khan name a single Pakistani artiste who has come from a minority community and been liked as much as these actors are in India," Naqvi said.
The Union minister also had a word of advice for veteran Indian actor Naseeruddin Shah, whose comments expressing concern over mob violence in the country were seized upon by Imran Khan to claim on Saturday that he will show the Indian government how to treat minorities.
"Naseeruddin Shah should also consider that such a sweeping statement that is also factually incorrect causes a lot of harm and is used by anti-India forces to target our country," Naqvi said.
Shah had cited the murder of a police inspector in Uttar Pradesh's Bulandshahr by a mob protesting alleged slaughter of cow to express his concern.
Slamming Pakistan, Naqvi said, "It is a land of atrocities against minorities. It is a land where the blood of minorities have been spilled over the decades. For it to lecture us on minority rights is a case of a cat going on a pilgrimage after eating 100 mice." Minorities' constitutional, social and democratic rights in India have always been secure, he said, adding that Pakistan's ill-treatment of its minorities have been recorded by various global bodies, including the United Nations.