Muslims not equal to Hindus: BJP leader

NEW DELHI: Dr Subramanian Swamy, a senior leader of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and a member of India’s parliament, has said that Muslims are not equal citizens since they pose a threat to the world.

He was speaking to journalist Isobel Yeung when he slammed over 200 million Muslims of his own country, reports the international media.

He was supposed to justify an ongoing human rights crisis in India, where Muslims are treated like second-class citizens.

“On this issue, the country is with us,” he told Yeung. “Most people like our hardline approach to solving pending problems.”

He said “where the Muslim population is large, there is always trouble,” which Yeung countered by pointing out that with 200 million Muslim residents, India has the second-largest Islamic population in the world. When Swamy stuck to his position, she told him his comments sounded “like hatred,” but he said he was being “kind.”

Once Yeung cited Article 14 of India’s constitution — “The State shall not deny any person’s equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India” — he told her she was misinterpreting it and, in fact, Muslims are “not in an equal category” to non-Muslims.