Senior Congress leader and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on Thursday said that he disagrees with his party colleague Salman Khurshid who recently compared Hindutva to radical jihadist groups like ISIS and Boko Haram in his new book 'Sunrise Over Ayodhya: Nationhood in Our Times'.
Taking to Twitter, Azad said: "In Mr. Salman Khursheed’s new book, we may not agree with Hindutva as a political ideology distinct from composite culture of Hinduism, but comparing Hindutva with ISIS and Jihadist Islam is factually wrong and an exaggeration."
Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) launched a scathing attack on the Congress over Salman Khurshid's latest book, and said the opposition party is weaving a web like a spider against Hindus.
Besides, a Delhi-based lawyer has filed a complaint with the Delhi Police seeking registration of an FIR against Khurshid on the matter.
According to lawyer Vivek Garg, Khurshid, in his book, wrote: "Sanatan Dharma and classical Hinduism known to sages and saints were being pushed aside by a robust version of Hindutva, by all standards a political version similar to the jihadist Islam of groups like ISIS and Boko Haram of recent years."
Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters, BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia said Khurshid's book on Ayodhya hurts religious sentiments of people.
"In this book Hinduism is compared to ISIS and Boko Haram," Bhatia said, adding that the Congress is weaving a web like a spider against Hindus.
Alleging that this is happening at the behest of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, Bhatia questioned her silence on the issue and said: "If you remain silent, then it will be clear that your ideology is also against Hindus."
Demanding Khurshid's removal from the Congress, the BJP spokesperson said, "Earlier, the term 'Hindu terrorism' was invented when the Congress was in power." BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya in a tweet highlighted a paragraph of the book and said, "Congress's Salman Khurshid in his new book writes that Hindutva is similar to the jihadist Islamist groups like ISIS and Boko Haram. What else can we expect from someone whose party coined the term Saffron terror just to draw equivalence with Islamic jihad, to get Muslim votes?"
The book by former Union minister Khurshid on the Ayodhya verdict was released on Wednesday.
(With PTI inputs)
