New Delhi, Jul 18 (NIE): Under fire for his ‘Hindu Pakistan’ remark, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said Wednesday he won’t withdraw any of his statements and demanded an apology from those who vandalised his constituency office in Kerala. Tharoor alleged it was carried out by the BJP’s youth wing members and demanded the intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“Those who attacked my office should apologise. I am not withdrawing anything,” he said outside parliament.

Asked about claims that if he was trying to break the country with his remarks, Tharoor said it was not so. “If you make India for one religion, that can probably break the country. When everyone will be able to live together, how will that break the country,” he said.

A day after the attack, Tharoor had hit back at BJP youth wing workers, saying “have they started a Taliban in Hinduism”.

Tharoor on Tuesday was quoted by ANI as saying: “They (BJYM) are asking me to go to Pakistan. Who has given them the right to decide that I am not a Hindu like them and I don’t have the right to stay in the country? Have they started a Taliban in Hinduism?” Five people were arrested in connection with the vandalism and later released on bail.

Meanwhile, Shashi Tharoor has failed to find support from his party for his remark that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would turn India into ‘Hindu Pakistan’ if it won the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Distancing itself from Tharoor’s controversial remark, the Congress urged its leaders to choose their words carefully while rejecting the hatred being propagated by the saffron party.