As Assam minister Ashok Singhal's 'Bihar approves Gobi farming' remark sparked a row with opposition leaders alleging it was 'glorifying' the killing of Muslims in Bhagalpur in 1989, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Sunday condemned the social media post, saying neither the Hindu faith nor nationalism justifies or condones such massacres, let alone applauds them.
'Bihar approves Gobi farming,' Singhal had posted on X on Friday with an image of a cauliflower field after the National Democratic Alliance win in assembly polls.
It evoked a strong response from many online who said the cauliflower image was an apparent reference to the 1989 Bhagalpur violence in Bihar, in which many Muslims were killed and buried in farmland where cauliflower saplings were later planted to conceal the bodies.
An X user replied to Singhal's post, saying that a cabinet minister, no less, is 'glorifying the massacre of 116 Muslims to celebrate an election victory'.
He tagged Tharoor and asked if the senior Congress leader could get a few influential Hindu leaders to condemn this 'normalisation of one of the worst pogroms perpetuated against Bihari Muslims'.
Responding to the post, Tharoor said, 'I'm not a community organiser, so joint statements are not my job. But as a passionate advocate of #InclusiveIndia and a proud Hindu, I can speak for myself, and for most Hindus I know, in saying that neither our faith nor our nationalism requires, justifies or condones such massacres, let alone applauds them.'
When another user said that he did not condemn the post, Tharoor responded, 'That's exactly what I did! I condemned it.' -- PTI