Congress leader Salman Khurshid's Nainital house set on fire.
Highlights
- Salman Khurshid in his new book compared Hindutva with ISIS and Boko Haram
- 20 people have been booked so far
- A petition was filed in Delhi HC seeking direction to ban book
Some people on Monday vandalized and set on fire the Nainital house of Congress leader and former Union Minister Salman Khurshid, amid criticism of the leader against his recent book in which he compared Hindutva with ISIS and Boko Haram.
Speaking on the matter, DGI (Kumaun) Neelesh Anand said, "Rakesh Kapil and 20 others have been booked. Strict action will be taken against perpetrators."
"I've said (in my book) that people who do such things don't belong to Hindu religion. It's a beautiful religion that has given a fantastic culture to this country & I'm proud of it. This attack is not on me but on Hindu religion," Congress leader Salman Khurshid said.
Condemning the incident, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said, "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."
On Sunday, a petition was filed in the Delhi High Court seeking direction to stop the publication, circulation, and sale of former Union Minister Salman Khurshid's book for its alleged remarks on Hindutva.
The plea filed by Advocate Vineet Jindal through Advocate Raj Kishor Chaudhary contended that the recently-launched book "Sunrise over Ayodhya: Nationhood in our times" authored by Khurshid compared Hindutva to radical jihadist groups like ISIS And Boko Haram.
The comment has been made in a chapter called "The Saffron Sky" on Page 113 of the book which reads as under -- "Sanatan dharma and classical Hinduism known to sages and saints was being pushed aside by a robust version of Hindutva, by all standards, a political version similar to jihadist Islam of groups like ISIS and Boko Haram of recent years," the plea read.
Further, it stated that the equivalence of Hinduism to ISIS and Boko Haram is perceived as a negative ideology Hindus have been following and Hinduism is violent, inhuman, and oppressive.
Freedom of speech and expression under Article 19(1) of the Constitution goes hand-in-hand with reasonable restrictions that may be imposed under Article 19(2), So, in a country like India, which is perpetually on a communal tinderbox, where religious sentiments run deep, where respect for certain public and historical figures always come accompanied with veneration for their demi-god 9 status, it doesn't take much for malice to be coated with a toxic communal hue based on the contents of the book, the plea stated.
