BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy has claimed support from his party’s top leadership in his bid to initiate a legal battle against United Nations Under-Secretary-General Adama Dieng.
Taking to Twitter, Swamy wrote, “I am honoured & encouraged to receive from the BJP National President J.P. Nadda and office bearers their best wishes for success on my endeavour to prosecute for defamation the United Nations Under Secretary General Mr. Adama Dieng. I am also thankful to the MEA for facilitation.”
I am honoured & encouraged to receive from the BJP National President J.P. Nadda and office bearers their best wishes for success on my endeavour to prosecute for defamation the United Nations Under Secretary General Mr. Adama Dieng. I am also thankful to the MEA for facilitation
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) May 22, 2020
Dieng, who’s also the UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, had last week said that ‘statements such as those expressed by Member of Parliament Subramanian Swamy, that all people are not equal, and that Muslims are not in an ‘equal category’ as others are extremely alarming.
Dieng had chosen to single out Swamy while issuing a media note on the alarming condition of minorities and attack on their religious freedom. Reacting to his statement, Swamyhad threatened to sue the UN official. He had written, “UN Under-Secretary-General Mr. Adama Dieng slandered me in a press release in New York saying I had said in an interview to a Pakistani owned TV channel that Muslims are not equal to Hindus in Indian Constitution. This is a blatant lie so I will take steps to sue him in court.”
In April this year, Swamy was asked by a journalist if the newly enacted Citizenship Amendment Act violated Article 14 of the Indian constitution, which guaranteed equal rights to Indian citizens regardless of their religious background. Swamy had replied, “I can tell you that’s the misinterpretation of Article 14. Article 14 guarantees equality of equals.”
When the anchor challenged him asking if all people were not equal, Subramanian Swamy had replied with a straight face, “All people are not equal.” He had added, “There’s no such thing called equal rights. They are not in equal category.”
This had prompted Twitterati to remind the BJP parliamentarian that his own journalist daughter was married to a Muslim.