Wading into the ensuing controversy involving senior Congress leader Salman Khursid, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is an antithesis to Sanatan Dharma, which teaches inclusivity.Mufti told reporters that what the BJP and its ideological mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), are propagating are not Sanatan Dharma.“Sanatan Dharma doesn’t teach us communalism. It is about RSS, BJP and Jan Sangh who want to make people fight in the name of communalism. They have hijacked Hinduism and Hindutva. They feel Hindutva and Hinduism are the BJP and RSS, but it is not so,” Mufti, who is the president of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said.She asked how are people who kill in the name of religion different from people who lynch in the name of religion.“Communal parties can be compared with IS (Islamic State). Those that make Hindus and Muslims fight in the name of religion. They can be compared with the IS or any other party, because both of them kill people in the name of religion,” she said.The controversy erupted after Khurshid, in his latest book ‘Sunrise Over Ayodhya: Nationhood in Our Times’, allegedly “defamed and compared Hindusim with terrorism”.However, on Friday, the former Union minister clarified his stand to Times Now and said, “Whoever wants to politicise, will do and whoever wants to write a book, will write. My book is for Hindu-Muslim unity.”
