Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator in Bihar, Haribhushan Thakur, said Muslims should not have voting rights and the community should live like “second-class citizens” in India. The State BJP unit issued a showcause notice to him to explain his remarks. The party’s ruling alliance partner, the Janata Dal-United (JD-U), reacted sharply and termed Mr. Thakur’s remark “preposterous and inflammatory”.
“As Muslims were given a separate country at the time of Partition in 1947, they should leave for Pakistan. And if they live in India, they should live like second-class citizens. We urge the government to take away voting rights of Muslims,” the BJP MLA from Bisfi in Madhubani district told media persons on February 25. He also said that Muslims wanted to make India an “Islamist state”.
Mr. Thakur is known for making controversial comments.
“We’ve already disassociated ourselves from Thakur’s statement and issued him showcause notice to explain why he said what he said,” State BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal said. Mr. Thakur has not commented after the showcause notice was issued.
“It seems the BJP MLA has no knowledge of Indian citizenship. Who is he to decide citizenship of people living in India? He is not going to get any political mileage over such remarks. He only wants to get media attention through it,” JD(U) leader and party spokesperson Neeraj Kumar said.
Recently, in a video that went viral on social media, BJP MLA from Govindganj in Bihar’s East Champaran district, Sunil Mani Tiwari, is allegedly seen telling people of his constituency: “If someone has to live in India, he should say Radhe-Radhe, Jai Shri Ram and Vande Mataram. This is Modi [Prime Minister Narendra Modi] and Yogi [U.P. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath] government.”
