Muslims not needed in India, they must go to Pakistan: BJP MP Vinay Katiyar

They were given different regions. They should go to either Bangladesh or Pakistan, said Vinay Katiyar.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Member of Parliament Vinay Katiyar has fired a fresh salvo by saying that Muslims should not be allowed to live in India. According to news agency ANI, Katiyar has said that when the Muslims divided the country on the basis of their population, there is no need for them to live in India.

“Musalman iss desh mein rehna hi nahi chahiye, unhone jansankhya ke aadhaar par desh ka batwara kardia toh iss desh mein rehne ki kya avashyakta thi? (Muslims should be living in this country at all. When they divided the country on the basis of population, what is the need for them to stay back in India?)” said the BJP leader.

He further said, “Unko alag bhu-bhaag de dia gaya, Bangladesh ya Pakistan jaayen yahan kya kaam hai unka? (They were given different regions. They should go to either Bangladesh or Pakistan, why are they needed here?).

Reacting to the demand of AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, who had sought a law to punish those who call Indian Muslims "Pakistani", Katiyar said that instead there should be a bill that calls for penalising those who hoist Pakistan’s flag in Indian territory.

“There should be a bill that punishes those who do not respect Vande Matram, those who insult the national flag,” said the BJP leader. “Those who hoist the Pakistani flag, they should be punished,” he added.

The controversial remarks of the BJP MP comes a day after All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Asaduddin Owaisi said on Tuesday that anyone calling Indian Muslims Pakistani should be jailed.

Addressing the Lok Sabha, Owaisi had asked the government to bring in a law to punish people who make such statements. He also called for a three-year jail term for anyone making such statements.

"Bring a law that if any Muslim is called Pakistani, the person will face a three-year jail term," he said, but added that the BJP-led government will not bring such a bill. Muslims living in India had rejected Mohammad Ali Jinnah's two-nation theory, he further said.

Owaisi was speaking in the Lok Sabha on the motion of thanks to President Ram Nath Kovind's address.