New Delhi: A lawmaker from India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ignited a huge controversy with his call for a “total boycott” in a speech apparently aimed at Muslims, NDTV reported.

At a public event in New Delhi, BJP MP Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma is seen addressing supporters on what should be done to “fix their head and set them straight”. “They keep opening handcarts, you don’t need to buy vegetables from them. They open fish-meat shops. We should tell MCD [municipal corporation] to close them if they don’t have a licence,” Verma said as he tells audience to repeat certain pledges after him, which people did at open venue. “Wherever you see them, if you want to fix their head, if you want to set them straight, then only cure is total boycott. Raise your hand if you agree,” BJP MP said and gestured towards crowd. All of them raised their hands. “Say after me, we will boycott them,” he said. People repeated after him. “We will not buy anything from their shops. We will not give them any work,” Verma said. This, too, drew a loud “yes-we-will” response.

Verma, when asked about his remarks, told Indian Express that he “did not name any religious community”. “What I said was that families whose members carry out such killings should be boycotted. Such families, if they run any restaurant or business, should be boycotted.”

Latest hate speech controversy comes at a time when India has been trying to fend off bad press, especially at global level, over how it has been treating its large Muslim population. US government’s commission on religious freedom in June asked Biden administration to categorise India and 11 other nations as “countries of particular concern” in context of religious freedom. India called report “biased and inaccurate”.

India frequently bristles at foreign criticism of its record. It has routinely denounced US Commission on International Religious Freedom, an autonomous government panel, which has repeatedly recommended India be put on a blacklist.

State Department is highly unlikely to take action against India, identified by successive US administrations as a key strategic partner in face of a rising China.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government has championed a series of measures that critics have called discriminatory.

Published in The Daily National Courier, October, 11 2022

Like Business on Facebook, follow @DailyNCourier on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.