People’s Democratic Party leader Iltija Mufti, daughter of former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, found herself at the center of a row after she called Hindutva a “disease” in a comment on social media. She was reacting to a video in Madhya Pradesh where three boys were beaten up and forced to say “Jai Shri Ram”.
The BJP apologized for Iltija’s remarks, calling her words “insulting”.
Sharing the video on X, Iltiza lamented that “minor Muslim boys are beaten with slippers for refusing to chant Lord Ram’s name” on Saturday. “Hinduism is a disease that has afflicted millions of Indians and defamed the name of God,” she said in the post.
In response to his post, he was quoted by BJP leader Ravindra Raina PTI “There may be differences of opinion in politics, it is not acceptable to hurt someone’s religious sentiments.”
“He reacted to the doctored video and used abusive words in the tweet,” he said.
Iltija told The Indian Express that she does not apologize for her comments and insisted that Hindutva is not the same as Hinduism.
“There is a proper difference between Hinduism and Hindutva. As BJP is claiming that BJP is India and India is BJP, they are also hijacking Hinduism,” she said.
“I did not talk about religion, I talked about ideology. An ideology that relegates minorities and Dalits to the bottom,” she told The Indian Express. “They are deliberately distorting the line between Hinduism and Hindutva.”
Speaking to reporters in Jammu, Iltija said she stood by her comments and reiterated: “I say this emphatically, Hinduism is a disease and we need to treat it.”
She said, “Hinduism is a philosophy that was propagated by Savarkar in the 1940s… that philosophy says India belongs to Hindus and belongs to Hindus. So there is a lot of difference between Hinduism and Hindutva.”
The video he posted went viral last week, prompting members of the Muslim community to protest outside the local police station in Madhya Pradesh’s Ratlam district, demanding strict action against the culprits.
According to the district police, in the video, a person is shown hitting the children aged 6, 9 and 11 with slippers, while another person recorded the incident.
Assistant Superintendent of Police Rakesh Khakha said that the video is about one and a half months old.