Ghazni ‘not foreign invader, but Hindustani looter,’ says ex-VP Hamid Ansari, sparks row

Former Vice President Hamid Ansari has sparked a new controversy by saying that Mahmud Ghazni was not a foreign invader but an Indian looter, resulting in a strong backlash on social media and from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). BJP leaders shared video clips of the interview in which Hamid Ansari says, “Log apni kitabon mein chhaptwate hain…koi Lodi aaye, koi Ghazni aye… par yeh sab toh Hindustani lootere the, ye baahar se nahi aye the…(You publish in your books about Lodi and Ghazni coming to invade…all of them were Indian looters, they didn’t come from outside.)”

“It’s politically convenient to say that they demolished this or that… but they did not come from outside India,” Ansari stressed.

Hamid Ansari was a member of the Congress party before being nominated Vice President in 2007.

The BJP countered the remarks and asked the Congress party whether its leadership agrees with Ansari’s views on the brutal raider.

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‘Congress eulogising Hindu haters, whitewashing atrocities’

Reacting to the remarks by Hamid Ansari, BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawala accused the Congress party of always eulogising Hindu haters and whitewashing their atrocities.

“The Congress ecosystem always eulogises Hindu haters. Whoever attacks or commits atrocities on Hindus is always subjected to whitewashing by the Congress ecosystem. Now, Hamid Ansari says that Ghazni was not a cruel person. Ghazni was just an Indian... Even if the person is doing tukde tukde of India, whether it’s Sharjeel, Yaqub, Afzal, or Umar, they stand in support of such elements. It shows the Hindu hatred they have in their minds,” Poonawala said.

“Now CONGRESS ECOSYSTEM AND Hamid Ansari eulogise Ghazni who destroyed & desecrated Somnath Mandir. Congress ecosystem eulogises Mahmud of Ghazni…they oppose Somnath Swabhiman Parv.. they whitewash crimes of Aurangzeb and those who did atrocities on Hindus !,” Poonawalla said in a post on X, referring to the Mahmud of Ghazni’s invasion of the Somnath Temple in 1026.

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‘Mahmud Ghazni demolished Hindu temples, murdered thousands of people’

BJP national spokesperson CR Kesavan also condemned Ansari’s comments and questioned whether the Congress leadership and Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi agree with his views on the brutal raider. He accused the Congress party of whitewashing the brutal raids of Mahmud Ghazni, who demolished Hindu temples and murdered thousands of people.

Kesavan also pointed out that the Islamic invasions of India, starting from the 8th century, systematically targeted sacred Hindu landmarks.

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Sharing the video clip of Ansari on X, Kesavan said, “Ghazni was not a foreign invader, he was Indian!” Indeed shocking remarks by former Vice President Hamid Ansari, who was the Congress-led UPA government’s choice for the post of Vice President, not once but twice. Does the Congress leadership and LOP Rahul Gandhi agree with such whitewashing of mercenary brutal raids as mere domestic acts, which demolished Hindu temples and murdered thousands?”

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“The barbaric Mahmud Ghazni raided India 17 times in the 11th century, ravaging the Mathura temple and breaking the Somnath Temple’s Jyotirlinga. Does Nehru’s Congress, which vehemently opposed the reconstruction of the Somnath Temple, agree with these remarks trying to normalise such brutality which was aimed at annihilating the very foundations of our Sanatan Sanskriti,” Kesavan asked.