Bengaluru: Soon after Bengaluru South MP and newly appointed BJP Yuva Morcha president Tejasvi Surya was invited as a guest speaker at the Indian startup conference 2020 in Hamburg, some of the Indian diaspora living in German raised strong objections by writing to the Consulate General of India.
The event is scheduled to be held on October 7 and is being conducted by the Consul General of India in partnership with GloMan Consulting GmbH.
TNM reported that, in a letter to the Consulate General signed by India Solidarity Germany, Chennai Solidarity Group, The Humanism Project, Solidarity Belgium, Indians Against CAA, NRC and NPR – Finland, Bharath Democracy Watch, Indian Alliance Paris, and Foundation The London Story, the community wrote that it is “disheartening to see its speaker list include Tejaswi Surya, a highly provocative and communal politician from Bangalore, seasoned by the RSS.”
The said letter has been circulated for more signatures. The community also raised four of the controversial MP’s tweets which were communal in nature.
They also raised Surya’s infamous “puncturewalla” speech given at a pro-CAA rally in Bengaluru in December of 2019, where he compared those against the new amendment to the law to “illiterate puncture shop wallahs”. Surya, at that time, was criticised for referring to the minority and Dalit community in a derogatory manner.
The community added, “Tejaswi Surya’s highly controversial and communal views are publicly available. Does the consulate also endorse his following views where he openly plays communal politics and calls for the government to favor a particular religion?”
“We will also raise this concern to other European progressive bodies and human rights institutions to limit platforms to people who are out rightly bigoted, misogynistic and take shelter behind freedom of speech to spew hatred against particular communities. We will really appreciate your actions toward holding and promoting the idea of progressive and pluralistic India by not hosting a polarizing figure,” they wrote.
Tejasvi Surya has been in the limelight a lot recently for his controversial statements, with many calling for him to be fired both from his post as MP and the BJP.