BJP MP Subramanian Swamy has threatened to sue the BBC after HARDtalk presenter Stephen Sackur grilled Ram Madhav during a recent interview over the former’s controversial comments about the status of Muslim citizens in India.
Reacting to the interview, Swamy tweeted, “I may have sue BBC Hard Talk for using the cut and splice Pakistani footage of VICE TV to attribute to me having said : “Muslims are not equal to Hindus in the Indian Constitution”.”
I may have sue BBC Hard Talk for using the cut and splice Pakistani footage of VICE TV to attribute to me having said : “Muslims are not equal to Hindus in the Indian Constitution”.
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) June 1, 2020
Swamy’s lawyer, Ishkaran Singh Bhandari, tweeted saying that the notice to the BBC was ready and will be dispatched on Monday. He tweeted, “The legal notice on behalf of @Swamy39 to BBC is ready. Will be sent on Monday. Will tweet updates!”
Dieng, who’s also the UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, had 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.
Earlier, Swamy had threatened to sue United Nations Under-Secretary-General Adama Dieng for the same reason.
While interviewing BJP leader Ram Madhav for the BBC flagship programme HARDtalk, Sackur had asked, “Are you not aware that just last month the BJP MP, Subramanian Swamy, said, ‘Muslims if they become anything like 30% of our population, they will be a danger to the country.’ Muslims, he said, are not in an equal category. This is the language of pure discrimination and coming from senior figures in your party.”
This had prompted Madhav to ‘warn’ the BBC host of consequences as Swamy may file a defamation case against him. Madhav had said, “Ok, I have not seen the statement directly. I take it that what you are saying is true. You be careful that if it is not true, you will be sued by Dr. Swamy. Having said that, we do not approve of such sentiments.”
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 for 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.