BJP schools Cong on Tharoor, but picks hate-mongers as anti-terror envoys

From Union minister Anurag Thakur, notorious for his Goli maro saalon ko slogan to veteran journalist MJ Akbar, one of the high-profile names to figure in the 2018 #MeToo movement, the seven teams, that will represent India on the world stage have at least four BJP leaders who haven’t had a squeaky clean record at home. At least three of these leaders –Thakur, Nishikant Dubey and Tejasvi Surya – have repeatedly been in news for spewing hate against Muslims and peddling an alternative and misleading account of history that paints the minority community in poor light.

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If the purpose of the government's delegations is to showcase India's syncretic unity and her combined resolve against terrorism and contrasting the country against a radically Islamic Republic of Pakistan, were these the ambassadors it should have picked?

Here’s a look at their controversial profiles:

Anurag Thakur

Thakur, Hamirpur MP and former Union minister, will be part of the Supriya Sule-led delegation bound for Egypt, Qatar, Ethiopia, and South Africa.

In 2020, when the country was in the throes of an intense protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), Thakur, then Minister of State for Finance, in an election rally in Delhi on January 27, fanned communal embers with a hateful slogan. While addressing the crowd at a BJP rally, videos of which later circulated online, he was seen egging on the crowd to chant – Desh ke gaddaron ko, goli maaro saalon ko (shoot the traitors of the country). The video showed Thakur chanting, “Desh ke gaddaron ko” and passing the cue to the audience, who then say “goli maaro saalon ko”.

The same slogan was used by controversial BJP leader Kapil Mishra at a pro-CAA rally in Delhi the previous year.

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In the wake of the incident, the Election Commission (EC) had ordered the BJP to chuck Thakur’s name off the party’s list of star campaigners while imposing a 72-hour campaigning ban on him.

Incidents of shooting at anti-CAA protesters were reported after Thakur encouraged the slogan among pro-CAA activists. In one such incident, a man had fired two rounds of bullets at the protest site at Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh while chanting ‘Hindu Rashtra Zindabad’ before being overpowered by police.

Thakur, however, denied having uttered the slogan. In March that year, when reporters asked him about the sloganeering, the minister called them “liars” and called it propaganda for the media. “You are lying. You people should first enhance your knowledge. Half knowledge is dangerous. Matter is sub-judice, so I’m not commenting further,” he had said.

"The matter is sub-judice, that is why I am not speaking much. Now you should improve your knowledge. You should have complete knowledge. Half-baked truth is dangerous – be it the propaganda of the media or somebody else. I feel that you guys should have complete knowledge," he had told media persons.

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In July 2024, he sparked another row by asking what Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s caste was during a discussion on the Union Budget in the Lok Sabha. Taking a dig at Rahul, an advocate for caste census, Thakur, without naming him, had said, “Those whose caste is not known, talk about the caste census.”

The Hamirpur MP, just like Nishikant Dubey, is routinely tapped by the BJP leadership as one of the party's speakers whenever any important Bill or issue is taken up for discussing in Lok Sabha and has earned a reputation of provoking Opposition MPs, Rahul and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi in particular, with comments that border on being either outrightly defamatory or communal.

MJ Akbar

An acclaimed journalist, author, and politician, Mobasher Jawed Akbar, found his political career nipped in the bud when he was accused of sexual harassment by several women as part of the #MeToo movement in 2018.

Akbar is part of the Operation Sindoor delegation, headed by Ravi Shankar Prasad, which will tour the UK, France, Germany, Italy, the EU, and Denmark.

In October 2018, journalist Priya Ramani accused Akbar of sexually harassing her during a job interview back in 1993 at Bombay’s Oberoi Hotel. Ramani had first recounted the incident in an article for Vogue, and a year late,r in a post on X said the person she had referred to was Akbar. At least 15 other former colleagues of Akbar shared similar stories of sexual harassment, adding weight to Ramani’s allegations.

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While the controversy cost Akbar his post as the junior foreign minister, he sued Ramani for defamation, denying all the charges made by her. However, on February 17, 2021, a Delhi court acquitted Ramani of charges of defamation.

Nishikant Dubey

A familiar name to look out for in the BJP for making controversial statements, Dubey recently faced massive backlash, embarrassing his party, by accusing the Supreme Court and then Chief Justice of India, Justice Sanjiv Khanna, of “inciting religious wars” and “civil uprisings” in the country by hearing petitions challenging the Waqf Amendment Act.

Dubey, a BJP MP from Jharkhand’s Godda constituency, had said that the Parliament and state Assemblies should be closed if the Supreme Court starts making laws.

As part of his rants, Dubey had also lashed out at the top court’s decision to decriminalise homosexuality in 2018, even though all religions consider it an offence.

While the BJP distanced itself from Dubey’s comments, rejecting them and calling them his personal opinion, the Supreme Court said the MP’s statements were irresponsible and showed his “ignorance about the role of the constitutional courts.”

In another display of communal hate, Dubey had called former Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi a “Muslim Commissioner”, accusing him of helping Bangladeshi “infiltrators” become Indian citizens.

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"You were not an election commissioner, you were a Muslim commissioner. The maximum number of Bangladeshi infiltrators were made voters in Santhal Pargana in Jharkhand during your tenure," he had posted on X after Quraishi accused the Centre of introducing the Waqf legislation to “grab Muslim land”.

It was, however, hilarious to see him make a U-turn after he was named a part of the central delegation that would visit the Islamic nations of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Algeria under the leadership of Baijayant Panda. With the delegation also having his political rival, Asaduddin Owaisi, Dubey said the latter’s inclusion showed the "most beautiful face of democracy".

"I am grateful to honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi for choosing me to travel to Muslim countries and talk about Pakistan's actions and India's 78-year struggle against terrorism," he said in an X post. "The most beautiful face of democracy is that Mr Owaisi and I will together talk about Indian democracy and the respect and dignity Muslims get in India," the post said.

Tejasvi Surya

In his short political career, BJP’s Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya has had a fair share of controversies, thanks to his incendiary language.

In March 2024, Surya was booked for inciting enmity between two communities and for “an explicit call for violence against the Muslim community” after he posted an alleged hate post on social media showing the assault on a Hindu shopkeeper in Bengaluru by a group of miscreants for playing the Hanuman Chalisa.

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The FIR was filed on the complaint of the Flying Squad Team based on a representation from the Campaign Against Hate Speech. A complaint was also filed against him with the EC for corrupt practices, violation of the Model Code of Conduct, disruption of communal harmony, and unlawful assembly.

In the post, Surya, referring to the assault, said it was an instance of the rising crimes against Hindus by jihadists in Karnataka.

“A Hindu shopkeeper who was playing bhajans at his shop was assaulted by anti-social elements, saying bhajans aren’t allowed during the time of azaan,” he said in the post.

“The emboldening of such elements is a direct result of Congress’s appeasement politics. Just a few days back, people who shouted ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ were given bail,” the post said.

“With such political backing available to Jihadis, naturally, such incidents of crime against Hindus have risen in our State. CM must stop setting wrong precedents. I call upon him to update the State on what action is initiated against the miscreants in this case,” he added.

The post made on March 18 had gathered millions of views.

Police later clarified that the altercation wasn’t communal and that there was no mention of the Hanuman Chalisa in the complaint.

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Not just this, in 2020, Surya faced massive backlash after an X post by him from 2015 on Arab women and orgasm went viral. The post, which Surya later deleted, went viral after Noora AlGhurair, a Dubai-based businessman posted a screenshot of it.

In the post, the BJP leader, quoting Canadian-Pakistani journalist, the late Tarek Fatah, had said, “95% Arab women have never had an orgasm in the last few hundred years! Every mother has produced kids as an act of sex and not love.”

While the post triggered sharp reactions from Arab nationals with many warning him not to travel to Arab countries ever, Princess Hend Al Qassimi, a member of the United Arab Emirates Royal family, had posted, “UAE law applies on nationals and non-nationals in terms of hate speech.”

Even though Surya deleted the post after coming under fire, archived comments showed he had defended his statement when it was originally made.

The 2020 incident wasn’t the sole instance of misogyny. In 2019, Surya was also forced to delete another post from 2014 in which he had criticised reservation for women in Parliament.

“With the exception of Women’s Reservation in Parliament, Modi govt agenda is inspiring. Dread d day when women’s reservation becomes reality,” he had posted.

Surya is part of the Shashi Tharoor-led delegation that will visit the US, Panama, Guyana, Brazil, and Colombia.