NEW DELHI: Former Vice-President M Hamid Ansari’s remarks on Mahmud of Ghazni during an interview triggered a sharp political backlash from the ruling BJP on Friday.
Senior BJP leaders, including party spokespersons, launched a coordinated attack on Ansari over his statement describing Mahmud of Ghazni as an “Indian dacoit”. The BJP accused the Congress and its wider ideological ecosystem of glorifying and romanticising foreign invaders, alleging that they have consistently defended and celebrated anti-Hindu tyrants.
Leading the charge, BJP Rajya Sabha MP and national spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi, speaking at a media briefing at the party headquarters, accused Ansari of harbouring sympathy for historical plunderers. He said Ansari’s comments reflected a “sick mindset.”
Continuing the criticism, Trivedi said, “Just as all the (British) viceroys ruled on behalf of the king or queen, all the Mughal emperors ruled as representatives of the Khalipha of Baghdad.”
The BJP’s response followed Ansari’s interview in which he suggested that figures commonly portrayed in history books as foreign invaders, including Mahmud of Ghazni, were in fact “Indian looteras”.
“I have always said that the people we portray as foreign invaders in our history books are that there is one Lodi, someone is Ghazi and someone is that. They were all Indian looteras. They didn’t come from outside. Politically, it’s convenient to say that they destroyed this and that. But they were all Indians,” the former vice president had said.
Sharing video footage of the remarks on X, BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla criticised Ansari for what he described as “eulogising” Mahmud of Ghazni, who he said had destroyed and desecrated the Somnath temple.
“After calling Sharjeel Imam and Umar Khalid as ‘Yuva’ (youths), now the Congress ecosystem and Hamid Ansari eulogise Ghazni who destroyed and desecrated the Somnath Mandir. The Congress ecosystem eulogises Mahmud of Ghazni -- they oppose Somnath Swabhiman Parv... they whitewash crimes of Aurangzeb and those who did atrocities on Hindus,” Poonawalla wrote on X.
Another BJP national spokesperson, Pradeep Bhandari, launched a broader attack on the Congress, which he labelled the “Modern India Muslim League”.