What is happening in Bangladesh can happen here: Salman Khurshid

PTI, Aug 7, 2024, 8:31 AM IST

Salman Khurshid (Credit: PTI)

New Delhi: Congress leader Salman Khurshid on Tuesday said what is happening in Bangladesh can happen in the country though “everything may look normal on the surface”.

The former Union minister was speaking at the launch of academician Mujibur Rehman’s book Shikwa-e-Hind: The Political Future of Indian Muslims.

“Everything may look normal in Kashmir. Everything may look normal here. We may be celebrating the victory, although of course some people believe that that victory or that success of 2024 was perhaps only marginal, perhaps a lot more needs to be done,” he said.

“The fact remains that under the surface there is something,” he said.

“What’s happening in Bangladesh can happen here… the spread in our country prevents things blowing up in the manner in which they’ve blown up in Bangladesh,” he said.

Addressing the event, Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Manoj Jha spoke about the Shaheen Bagh agitation against the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens and said it has not been given due credit.

“Success of Shaheen Bagh should not be measured on the scale of grandeur of what it achieved,” Jha said.

“Remember what constituted the Shaheen Bagh protest…When the Parliament lost, the streets became alive,” he said.

The protest against the new citizenship law spearheaded by women in Southeast Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh continued for nearly 100 days and had inspired similar demonstrations across the country.

While Jha felt that the Shaheen Bagh agitation was successful, Khurshid was of the view that the agitation failed as many who were part of the protests continue to be in jail.

Khurshid also said that another agitation like that of Shaheen Bagh cannot take place in the country today.

“You mind if I said that Shaheen Bagh failed? A lot of us believe that Shaheen Bagh succeeded. But I know what’s happening to the people who are associated with Shaheen Bagh. How many of them are still in prison? How many of them can’t get bail? How many of them are being told that they are enemies of this country?” he said.

“If I ask myself tomorrow would there be a repeat of Shaheen Bagh and I’m not sure there would be because people have really suffered,” he said.

AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi, meanwhile, rued the low representation of Muslims in assemblies and Parliament, and also questioned if the situation for Muslims would have changed if the opposition was in power.

“The reality is Muslims have never voted for any right-wing candidate or BJP. Had there been a non-BJP government right now, would things have changed? No,” he said.

Talking about the rise of the Hindu right wing, he said, “The Fuhrer (Hitler) did not invent anti-Jew sentiments… it was already there. Our society also had subterranean sentiments.”

“We call Atal Bihari Vajpayee liberal… The fact of the matter is Vajpayee and Advani were creating a climate for the arrival of this gentleman,” he said.

In his remarks, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said that he was among the first MPs to meet the protesters at Shaheen Bagh, and they were not just Muslims, but were people from all faiths.

“Throughout the country, and I, myself have been to seven protests. There were people of all faiths at the protest,” he said.

He said there was a sense of “Indianness” in the protest.

TMC MP Jawahar Sircar said his party has a number of Muslim MPs, and pointed to Yusuf Pathan defeating Congress’s Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury in Baharampore. He took a dig at Owaisi and said, “All seats would have gone to BJP if Owaisi would have fought.

Owaisi retorted saying Muslims are voting for them out of compulsion.

“Muslims have done a favour to your party by voting en block for you. I am not the problem. The problem is your political mindset,” he said.

“I can give empirical evidence that your party has not done anything for Muslims. We are voting out of compulsion. Remember when an alternative emerges everything goes,” he said.