India will become ‘Hindu Pakistan' if BJP wins 2019 elections: Tharoor

Tharoor's remark left the BJP fuming and the saffron party demanded an apology from Rahul Gandhi for it.

New Delhi, July 11: Congress leader Shashi Tharoor seems to have stirred a hornet's nest by saying that India's "democratic constitution" will not survive if the ruling BJP comes back to power in 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Tharoor said that the BJP has "elements" that may "tear apart" the Constitution and write a new one.

"If they (BJP) win a repeat in the Lok Sabha our democratic constitution as we understand it will not survive as they will have all the elements they need to tear apart the constitution of India & write a new one," Tharoor reportedly said.

"That new one will be the one which will enshrine principles of Hindu Rashtra, that'll remove equality for minorities, that will create a Hindu Pakistan and that isn't what Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru, Sardar Patel, Maulana Azad and great heroes of freedom struggle fought for," he further said.

Tharoor's remark left the BJP fuming and the saffron party demanded an apology from Rahul Gandhi for it.

"Rahul Gandhi must apologise for what Shashi Tharoor said. Congress was responsible for creation of Pakistan because of its ambitions yet again it has gone ahead to demean India and defame Hindus of India," BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra told ANI.