Congress seeks to silence authors Tarek Fatah and Taslima Nasreen. Both writers attacked in India’s Upper House Rajya Sabha

On July 20, 2016 during a parliamentary debate on the strife in Kashmir and the press censorship imposed in that State, the leader of the India’s opposition Congress Party in the Upper House of Parliament, Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad took an unprecedented swipe at Bangladesh-born writer Taslima Nasreen and Pakistan-born Tarek Fatah, describing them as ‘anti-Islamic’ non-Indians.

The attack came after both Taslima Nasreen and Tarek Fatah participated in TV debates to discuss the role of a Saudi-backed Islamic supremacist wahhabi preacher in India, Dr. Zakir Naik in fanning Islamic radicalism in Bangladesh, Pakistan and India, specifically in the State of Kashmir.

While asking for press freedom and freedom of speech, Mr. Azad ironically argued that both Taslima and Fatah be stopped from appearing on Indian TV networks and blamed the current Indian government for not silencing any discussion on Islam.

Here is an extract of Mr. Azad’s speech:

As bizarre as his allegation was, the Muslim Congress leader seemed particularly upset that both Nasreen and Fatah were vocal critics of the Islamists and Jihadis in J&K and identified themselves with Indian heritage.

The next day the Indian TV network ZeeNews hosted a discussion on this issue with spokesmen of both the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress Party where the secular Congress’s representative insisted we no one should discuss Islam on TV networks even if the acts of terror were being carried put by jihadis in the name of Islam.

Here is the discussion in two parts:

Part One:


Part Two: