Congress MP Imran Masood faces backlash for equating Bhagat Singh with Hamas; BJP condemns his remarks as insulting freedom fighters. Photo: X.
Imran Masood, the Congress Member of Parliament from Saharanpur constituency in Uttar Pradesh has courted a controversy by equating India’s freedom fighter Bhagat Singh to the Palestinian militant group Hamas. The MP is facing backlash on social media for eulogising terror group with netizens accusing him of insulting the Indian freedom fighters.
Masood was speaking on a podcast where he made these remarks in response to a question. In the viral clip he is seen agitated when he was told that Hamas was a terrorist organisation during a discussion on the October 7 attacks on Israel in 2023, asking, “Was Bhagat Singh a terrorist as well?”
The podcaster ask Masood whether he considers Hamas and Bhagat Singh same to which he responds in affirmative.
“They are fighting for their land. Bhagat Singh was also fighting for his land. Bhagat Singh made the supreme sacrifice for his land. Israel is the occupier,” he said.
“For you, Hamas is a terrorist organisation. I believe Hamas is fighting for its freedom. You are looking at their 250 hostages they (Hamas) had taken, but you are not looking at 1 lakh people Israel has killed.”
BJP has pounced upon the controversy with its national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla accusing Masood of insulting the freedom fighters
“Boti Boti Imran Masood compares Hamas to Bhagat Singh ji. This is an insult to all freedom fighters,” BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla wrote on X.
“Left & Congress eulogise terror groups and undermine all our heroes to make Gandhis look great. Earlier, Kanhaiya Kumar compared Bhagat Singh ji to Lalu Yadav! This isn’t the first time! Congress had earlier too insulted Bhagat Singh ji! They did this with Chandrashekhar Azad ji, Savarkar ji, Patel ji, Birsa Munda ji,” he added.
Masood is a congress MP. He won the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from Saharanpur constituency in Uttar Pradesh. This is not the first time he has found himself in a controversy. Only this month, he was put under house arrest on October 1 for leading a Congress delegation to violence-hit Bareilly over the ‘I Love Muhammad’ poster row.
Hamas recently accepted Donald Trump’s Gaza Peace Plan after the region witnessed large-scale violence with UN accusing Israel of genocide. Israel has killed over 67,000 Palestinians during the protracted war after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.
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Zubair Amin is a Senior Journalist at NewsX with over seven years of experience in reporting and editorial work. He has written for leading national and international publications, including Foreign Policy Magazine, Al Jazeera, The Economic Times, The Indian Express, The Wire, Article 14, Mongabay, News9, among others. His primary focus is on international affairs, with a strong interest in US politics and policy. He also writes on West Asia, Indian polity, and constitutional issues. Zubair tweets at zubaiyr.amin
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