The BJP Rajya Sabha MP, Subramanian Swamy on Friday made a sensational statement by urging the Indian government not to give undue importance to Pakistan’s nuclear might and attack the neighboring country even if it resulted in a full-blown nuclear war.
Speaking to ABP News’ flagship programme, Press Conference, Swamy said, “In the event of a nuclear war, Pakistani nuclear bombs can kill not more than 10 crore people. We are the country of 112 crore population. But our nuclear bombs can wipe off Pakistan altogether.”
When reminded if he was asking 10 crore Indians to be prepared to be killed, Swamy said, “I think the chance of a nuclear war is very low. But should it happen, 10 crore people should be prepared to be killed. Our soldiers die while protecting the border. Indian is the only country where officers to the rank of captains and brigadiers put themselves at the frontline. If they can die for the country, why can’t us.”
In response to a question from www.jantakareporter.com’s editor-in-chief, Rifat Jawaid, the former union minister denied the allegations that his utterances were often bereft of logic and sensibility.
This was after Swamy was reminded how he had once called the former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee drunk and likened Sonia Gandhi, Tamil Nadu chief minister, J Jayalalitha and the BSP supremo Mayawati with Laxmi, Saraswati and Durga respectively.
Denying all these charges Swamy said, “I had never called Vajpayee drunk. I also never likened Sonia, Jayalalitha and Mayawati with Laxmi, Saraswati and Durga. I had used this analogy in the context of my efforts to form an alternative government at the Centre in 1999.”
Swamy’s provocative statements, often dubbed senseless by his detractors, had cost him his job at Harvard, where he once taught as a professor.
He had to face unprecedented anger by the American university after his article in an Indian newspaper demonised Muslims.
While reacting to the university’s decision to drop two courses taught by Swamy, Comparative Religion Professor Diana Eck had said, “Swamy’s op-ed [piece] clearly crosses the line by demonising an entire religious community and calling for violence against their sacred places.”
The Faculty of Arts and Sciences, according to a BBC report, had voted with an “overwhelming majority” to remove the courses taught by Swamy.
Labelling Rifat as Leftist, Swamy denied that there were any complaints against him for his article published in DNA newspaper. This despite the report that as many as 400 students had complained to the Harvard administration asking it to remove him.
Reacting to the Uri attack, which killed 18 Indian soldiers, Swamy said that some special forces had already crossed the LoC and reached near the headquarters of the Pakistan-based terrorist organisation, Jaish-e-Muhammad.
Swamy said that the senior Congress leader Ahmad Patel was acting as an umpire in the ongoing battle between Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and the LG Najeeb Jung.
(The Press Conference, presented by Dibang, will go on air on Saturday (24 September) night at 2000 hours)