BJP lawmaker calls for missile strike on Muslim neighborhood in India
Indian ruling-party legislator invokes bombing of Muslim-majority area and boasts about Babri Mosque demolition while threatening similar fate for historic Mathura mosque
NEW DELHI, India (MNTV) — A lawmaker from India’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party has publicly called for a missile to be dropped on a Muslim-majority neighborhood, in an inflammatory speech that also celebrated the demolition of the Babri Mosque and threatened the destruction of another historic mosque.
Rameshwar Sharma, a BJP legislator in the central state of Madhya Pradesh, made the remarks while addressing a Hindu religious gathering in Bhopal, where he explicitly named Qazi Camp, a predominantly Muslim locality in the state capital.
“Launch a missile from Karond Chauraha and drop it on Qazi Camp,” Sharma said during a religious event in Bhopal’s Karond area, according to a video of the speech widely circulated online.
Sharma subsequently denied that he was threatening the Bhopal neighborhood, claiming he had instead been referring to a place called Qazi Camp in Islamabad, Pakistan. His explanation prompted further criticism after opponents pointed out that no locality by that name is known to exist in the Pakistani capital.
The remarks have drawn calls for criminal action against the legislator over rhetoric critics say effectively invokes military violence against an Indian Muslim community.
Sharma went further during the same speech, threatening the Shahi Idgah mosque in Mathura, a centuries-old Muslim place of worship that Hindu nationalist groups claim was constructed at the birthplace of the Hindu deity Krishna.
Invoking the 1992 destruction of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya by a Hindu extremist mob, Sharma suggested the Mathura mosque could eventually meet a similar fate and be replaced by a Hindu temple.
He made the remarks while addressing the Matki Phod event, part of celebrations marking the birth anniversary of the Hindu deity Krishna.
Invoking Krishna and his mythical weapon, the Sudarshan Chakra, Sharma said, “The day the one with the Sudarshan Chakra comes to earth, the structure of the Mathura Idgah will be demolished and a grand temple will be built.”
The Babri Mosque was demolished on Dec. 6, 1992, after a campaign led by the BJP and other organizations associated with the Hindu supremacist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. The destruction triggered nationwide communal violence in which about 2,000 people were killed, most of them Muslims.
India’s Supreme Court later ruled that the mosque’s demolition was an “egregious violation of the rule of law,” even as it awarded the disputed site to Hindus for construction of a Ram temple. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the temple in 2024.
Sharma also targeted Muslim religious leaders during the Bhopal gathering, warning mullahs and maulvis against what he described as Muslim occupation of Hindu religious sites.
“When you drink the water of the Ganga, eat the wheat and salt of this land, then we will drag you and deal with you in such a way that no terrorists will be born again,” he said.
The rhetoric reflects a wider Hindu nationalist campaign over historic Muslim religious sites in India.
After the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, Hindu groups have increasingly pursued claims over mosques in Mathura, Varanasi and elsewhere, alleging they were constructed over demolished Hindu temples.
Sharma has previously faced criticism for inflammatory rhetoric targeting Muslims and Muslim religious sites.
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