Shashi Tharoor stood by his “Hindu Pakistan” remark during an interview on news channel NDTV.
This is what he had to say,
“It is a political issue. The speech I was invited to give, the topic that was given to me was “Challenges to Indian Democracy and Seculars” and I believe this is a very profound challenge. This is very much part of the agenda of those who are seeking votes in the name of religious polarisation.
When you have Hindus like myself, who are completely unabashed about our faith but see its an inclusive faith. We don’t want to live in a Hindu version of Pakistan. Do you think that the Muslim moderates of Pakistan have any choice but to live in a state which enshrines bigotry, which stamps on passports of non-muslims the word that they are non-muslims? Is that the kind of state they want to create? No. So, it’s time we stand up against it and say no!
In fact, Muslim friends have openly said that one of the reasons they feel secure here in India is because the Hindu majority here believes in inclusion, believes in embracing all. That’s the kind of India we have been for seventy years. That’s the kind of India refers in the constitution.
I don’t see what I should apologise for. I have spoken facts exactly as they are. The day the Bhartiya Janta Party repudiates the theory of Hindu Rashtra, I’ll stop saying this because at the moment Hindu Rashtra remains very much an objective of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, to which the BJP cabinet as you know goes and you need to pay obeisance.
So until they drop their beliefs, how can one stop criticising them?”