Muslims ‘not in equal category’, says top BJP lawmaker

ISLAMABAD: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lawmaker Subramanian Swamy has said Muslims are “not in an equal category” as other Indian communities in an interview that has sparked revulsion from Prime Minister Imran Khan.

In a preview of the interview which airs tomorrow (Sunday) on Showtime, Swamy claimed to Vice’s Isobel Yeung that most Indians supported the ruling party for its “hard-line approach to solve pending problems”.

When the lawmaker was asked about the exclusion of Muslims in the contentious citizenship laws passed by the country, and how “India is rolling back its secular, democratic core”, the lawmaker said the act cannot be faulted for that. “This was a commitment we had made over several years, over several governments. We have completed the job,” he said.

He also confidently tells Yeung that: “We know where the Muslim population is large, there is always trouble. Because the Islamic ideology says so.”

When journalist confronts him about 200 million Muslims living in India, the second largest Muslim population in the world, “and you’re saying that wherever there are Muslims, there [are] problems?” He responds: “If Muslims become more than 30 per cent then that country’s danger,” said the BJP MP. When told that his comments sounded like hatred, the BJP lawmaker said he was being “kind to the Muslims by not allowing them to come to India”.

When told that Article 14 of the Indian constitution guarantees equal rights to all citizens, the lawmaker replied saying it is a “misinterpretation of article 14”.

“Article 14 guarantees, equality of equals,” said Swamy. When he was interjected and asked whether all people were equal, he flatly denied that equality existed. He said: “There’s no such equal rights, they’re not in an equal category.” Reacting to the controversial remarks, Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday said: “The RSS inspired BJP leadership in the 21st century openly speaking about the 200 million Muslims just as the Nazis spoke about the Jews.” He also shared the preview of the interview in the tweet.