BY RATTAN MALL

MANY South Asians in B.C. are upset that BJP leader from India, Subramanian Swamy, used his visit to the Lower Mainland to publicize his controversial demand against Muslims and want Canadian authorities to take action under the hate crime laws.

In fact, they want to know why the Conservative government of Stephen Harper allowed Swamy into Canada in view of his controversial anti-Muslim views.

Among those who attended various functions where Swamy was the chief guest were federal National Revenue Minister Kerry-Lynne D. Findlay and NDP MP Jinny Sims.

Swamy said Muslims in India should be denied the right to vote if they do not acknowledge that their ancestors were Hindus.

In an interview, Swamy told Surrey’s Radio KRPI 1550 AM’s talk show host Jasbir Romana: “If they [Muslims] chose to stay in India, I am saying that I am requiring an additional right that you must acknowledge that your ancestors are Hindus, because they are.”

He brought in the politics of genetics, noting: “If they can show me that this is not true, then I will change my stand. But the journal of genetics published by the University of Cambridge shows that Hindus and Muslims have the same ancestry. I don’t say that about the Jains or the Buddhists or the Sikhs because they know. …   Christians also openly accept that we [were] originally Hindus.”

WHEN Swamy expressed similar view after the 2011 Mumbai bombings, he faced charges in India.

According to Wikipedia: “In response to the 2011 Mumbai bombings, he wrote an editorial in Daily News and Analysis (DNA). Some of Swamy’s controversial suggestions in the article are:

“* The Hindu is the target and that Muslims of India are being programmed by a slow reactive process to become radical and thus slide into suicide against Hindus.

“* Remove Article 370, and re-settle ex-servicemen in the Valley. Create Panun Kashmir for Hindu Pandit community. Look or create opportunity to take over PoK [Pakistan-occupied Kashmir]. If Pakistan continues to back terrorists, assist the Baluchis and Sindhis to struggle for independence.

“* Enact a national law prohibiting conversion from Hindu religion to any other religion.

“* Only Muslims who “acknowledge that their ancestors were Hindus” be allowed to vote in India.

“* Propagate the development of a Hindu mindset.

“Swamy had written a similar column in The New Indian Express after the 2008 Mumbai attacks. As a result of his “reprehensible” views in the articles, Harvard University cancelled two economics courses taught at the university by Swamy.

“On 3 August 2011 the National Commission for Minorities decided to file civil charges against Swamy for the article and promoting on the basis of religion. On 4 October 2011 the Delhi Police registered the case. Swamy was then granted police protection by the Delhi High Court. On 30 January 2012 Swamy was granted anticipatory bail by the court with the condition that he would not write such articles in the future.”

IN Canada, Swamy reverted back to that nonsensical propaganda, perhaps because the BJP is in power now.

The VOICE got hold of a recording of Swamy’s interview (and the Canadian media, the police, the federal government and others can get a copy from me) with Radio KRPI 1550 AM’s talk show host Jasbir Romana.

Romana told Swamy: “You once said that the Muslims who acknowledge that their forefathers were Hindus, they should only have the right to vote in India. That’s pretty strange.”

Swamy responded: “No, it’s not strange. … You see the right to vote is not a fundamental right; it is actually a statutory right. … After all if I want to unite Hindus and Muslims, the Hindus and Muslims must find some common ground. Now the ISIS and al-Qaeda and all these people are trying to make Muslims in the international community. The ISIS actually in their Charter has said that all Muslims must acknowledge that they are citizens of what they call Khorasan or something like that.

“So in that context I said that to bring Hindus and Muslims [closer], let Muslims not identify themselves with [Muslim invaders of India] Muhammad Ghori and Mohammed Ghazni and the DNA study shows that their [Muslims’] DNA and our [Hindus’] DNA is the same. So they must acknowledge that. If they don’t acknowledge that, then we have to ask this question whether they should get a vote.

“Because after all when Partition was created by the British by an Act of Parliament, they said India will be a Hindu India and Pakistan will be a Muslim Pakistan and Ambedkar said let there be a population transfer also.

“But we decided, no, those Muslims who don’t want to leave and want to identify themselves with India, they can stay. Now once they stay they must find common ground with the Hindus and the only common ground to starting … is that we are the same people, that in fact this is a way of strengthening Muslim claim to be an Indian, because they are saying that my ancestors are also from this country, we have not come with Ghazni or Ghori.”