‘Quite shocking’: Shashi Tharoor condemns Maharashtra minister Nitesh Rane’s ‘EVM’ remark

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Saturday described Nitesh Rane’s alleged “EVM” remark as “shocking”. The Congress MP from Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram further stressed that “picking” on any particular community or caste was “wrong.”

Shashi Tharoor told news agency ANI, “This is quite shocking. In our country, we really have to understand the basic lesson of the freedom struggle, which is that when one set of people said that religion is the basis of their nationhood, they went away and created Pakistan.”

Tharoor added, “We are all equal individual citizens of India, and that is the only basis on which our country can progress.”

While EVM actually stands for electronic voting machine, Nitesh Rane, while addressing a Hindu Garjana Sabha in Sangli on Friday, reportedly said “EVM means, Every Vote against Mullah.”

Recently, the BJP leader also courted controversy over his statement that Kerala was a “mini-Pakistan,” leading to Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan calling the statement “deeply provocative and deplorable.”

In September last year, Nitesh Rane was booked for an alleged hate speech against Muslims.

Brinda Karat demands action against Nitesh Rane
Meanwhile, Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Brinda Karat also condemned Nitesh Rane’s remarks and called for his arrest.

“This is hate speech and this man should be arrested. He is a threat to India as this is not the first time he has made such an outrageous communal statement. The fact that he continues as a minister is a reflection of the hypocrisy of the BJP and the RSS. Prime minister (Narendra Modi) talks of the Constitution and here his minister is destroying the basic foundation of the Constitution through this hate speech, so he must be removed from his post,” Karat said.