Tharoor to Modi: India is not a Hindu Pakistan

Taking on the Gujarat Chief Minister over his comments on the Congress, Minister of State Shashi Tharoor said that Narendra Modi no longer attacked Muslims directly but resorts to inflammatory metaphors. Something that can be a dangerous in a society like ours. “Modi no longer attacks Muslims directly but through veiled references. It is very dangerous and a serious matter in a society like ours,” Tharoor told CNN-IBN in an exclusive interview. The minister pointed to the idea behind the creation of India and said that it fell to India’s political leadership to ensure that it not only catered to the majority community, but people from every community and religion who had chosen to live in the country. “We did not want India to become a Hindu Pakistan as unfortunately one particular political tendency in our country wanted it to become. We are not a Hindu Pakistan,” Tharoor said. [caption id=“attachment_956679” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  AFP[/caption] He said that he had no intention of apologising if the government had programmes that targeted minority communities. The minister also said that the Congress hadn’t shifted the points of the debate for 2014 to one over secularism instead of a debate over development. “I think it is much better to wear the veil of secularism than to wear khaki shorts… Modi with his comment on ‘burqa’ was setting himself for this,” Tharoor said, adding that the Gujarat Chief Minister was attempting to reinvent himself as a model of development.