Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has responded to Union minister Kiren Rijiju’s comments on comparing India and Bangladesh amid the war of words over a narrative of “regime change”.
Kiren Rijiju had launched a counter attack on the Opposition Congress and 29-year-old student activist from JNU Neha Bora
Wading into the controversy, Tharoor today sought to downplay the comments made by people who were friendly to the Congress. “I think that India is not Bangladesh and India is not France. I don’t see these analogies as particularly relevant. The CJP has the backing of the Opposition parties and is led by a foreign-educated public relations graduate and a few others who have openly supported the Congress and its leaders including Rahul Gandhi. They had protested over the NEET exam paper leak which eventually forced Dharmendra Pradhan to resign as Union Education Minister.
Earlier, Rijiju had launched a counter attack on the Opposition Congress and 29-year-old student activist from JNU Neha Bora, who did mention “regime change” while criticising the Centre over the voter roll cleanup exercise Special Intensive Revision (SIR), alleging it was meant to remove voters. We would never condone any of the violence, setting alight buses and police stations and so on, that has occurred in France,” the former diplomat said, also referring to the riots in France over a rise in cost of living and other issues. Tharoor said the Opposition believes in and supports only peaceful protest. In Bangladesh, before Sheikh Hasina was ousted as prime minister, she had complained of a “white man’s” plot to carve out a Christian nation out of her country and Myanmar. After she left her country amid protests and destruction, her son Sajeeb Wazed had blamed the previous US government for spending “millions of dollars on regime change” in his country.
