Controversy over Azad's statement on 'Indian Muslims' refuses to die down [details]

The controversy over former Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad's remarks on "Indian Muslims" refused to die down with political parties taking a jibe at the veteran politician for his controversial statements.

Although Ghulam Nabi Azad has sought to end the controversy by clarifying his position, politicians are repeatedly raking up his statement to demonize the former Chief Minister of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.

"I am shocked by such a highly provocative statement from a senior leader like Ghulam Nabi Azad. He is pursuing the ideology and narrative of Sangh Parivar comprising RSS, BJP, and Jan Sangh against the Muslims of the country", Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti said on Monday.

Some outfits of Sangh Parivar have launched the "Ghar Wapsi" campaign on the same narrative that Ghulam Nabi Azad is propagating. Mufti said that Muslims in India are "unsafe" because of this narrative.

Earlier Mehabooba Mufti took a jibe at Azad, saying he can find some monkeys among his ancestors if he looks in the past.

"I don't know how much knowledge Azad has about his ancestors. He should have gone back further in the past, and he might find some monkeys in his family history," Mehbooba said.

Farooq reacts to Azad's remarks

Although Dr. Farooq Abdullah avoided a direct attack on Azad, the National Conference president said that he has no idea why he (Azad) had to raise the issue given the fact that he knows the history of the state.

"I don't know why he had to raise this. He knows the history of the State. It is for him to answer what was the necessity of bringing another thing to the front,", Dr. Abdullah said.

What Azad said about Muslims in India?

Ghulam Nabi Azad recently stated that the majority of Indian Muslims have converted from Hinduism. He said an example of this can be found in the Kashmir Valley where a majority of Kashmiri Pandits converted to Islam.

"All other Muslims converted from Hinduism in India. An example of this can be found in Kashmir. Who were the Muslims in Kashmir 600 years ago? All were Kashmiri Pandits. They converted to Islam. All are born into this religion," Azad said.

Later issued a clarification to end the controversy

As some political parties and religious groups mocked former Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad for his statement on Indian Muslims, the ex-leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha sought to end the controversy by clarifying his position.

Seeking to clarify his position on his recent statement, the Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) chairman Ghulam said that his entire speech was not recorded and that what has surfaced is a portion of the entire speech in which he discussed his "viral" statement in depth.

In a video posted on social media, Azad explained, "My full video was not recorded due to which it was misinterpreted by people. I was talking about Hindu-Muslim relations in India. And I talked about a few people who say that Muslims came from outside. There are two things in this respect, firstly, there are very few Muslims who came from outside, a larger chunk of the population lived in India only. Secondly, neither in the world nor in our country, Islam did not come using weapons. It came through the message of love and peace."

He said that his full speech was not recorded and only a portion was released and posted on social media.

"I also talked about the fact that in India, Hinduism is evident since ancient times, and this is true because Islam wasn't born here in this country, Islam spread and reached this region. But this statement of mine was not recorded," Azad continued.