A massive human rights rally taken out by the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) at Kozhikode on Thursday expressing solidarity with the people of Palestine has turned into a subject of controversy over a word used by the rally’s chief guest Shashi Tharoor, MP.
During his inaugural speech, Mr. Tharoor, without naming Hamas, described the attack on Israel as a terrorist attack. The platforms of the social media as well as the visual media turned hot with angry responses against Mr. Tharoor.
Although IUML leaders such as M.P. Abdussamad Samadani, MP, and M.K. Muneer, MLA, who spoke after Mr. Tharoor at the Kozhikode rally, disowned the chief guest explaining that the fight the Hamas engaged in was that of resistance and not that of extremism or terrorism, the controversy had erupted even before Mr. Tharoor ended his speech.
Making his stand clear, Mr. Tharoor said on Friday that he “was and is with the people of Palestine and it is useless to rake up an issue by taking one word or point from my speech.”
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IUML national general secretary P.K. Kunhalikutty, unusually animated during a press briefing here on Friday, said those who made the controversy by catching a single word were trying to defeat the cause of the Palestinian people.
“Please do not defeat the Palestine cause by bringing petty local politics when the international media were taking note of the mammoth rally that we took out for the people of Palestine,” said Mr. Kunhalikutty.
“We invited Mr. Tharoor as our chief guest at the rally because we wanted a public opinion to be formed at the international level for those suffering in Palestine. And we succeeded in it. Mr. Tharoor has made his stand clear saying that he is with the people of Palestine. Making a controversy out of this rally is cruel to the people of Palestine,” said the IUML leader.
Mr. Kunhalikutty advised the media and the critics not to waste their time “reading between the lines and looking for dots and commas”. He said they would be belittling the people of Palestine.
BJP leader and film actor Suresh Gopi said at Kozhikode that Hamas was the biggest threat to the Muslim world and that Mr. Tharoor would not have referred to Hamas without studying them.
The Palestine rally was widely viewed as a show of strength by the IUML especially at a time when the party was at loggerheads with the Samastha Kerala Jamiyyathul Ulama, the biggest organisation of traditional Muslim scholars in Kerala.
Some young leaders of the Samastha took to the social media criticising the IUML for inviting Mr. Tharoor. According Samastha youth wing leader Sathar Panthallur, Mr. Tharoor was still thankful for the wages he got as a United Nations official.
Indian National League district general secretary C.P. Abdul Wahab and president T.A. Samad said that Mr. Tharoor mocked at the Palestinian fight for homeland because he had allegiance to a group that worked for Israel and its supporters.
