Holocaust remark has been misread, says Khurshid

A day after External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid drew an indirect comparison between the “holocaust” and the Gujarat riots, he retracted his comment and said there has been a “misreading” somewhere.

Khurshid told reporters, “I do not think this is an issue of a dialogue between the State Department and us, and nor did I say it was similar to holocaust. I said the holocaust is an issue with liberal democracies in the West, we do not tell them to forget it. So, I said similarly assessments made by Indian people about incidents and events that happened in India, I do not think we should be told by somebody to forget it.

These are assessments every society has to make for itself. I do not think we need to compare one unwholesome thing with another. And it would be unfair to some for anyone to think that we are comparing one major incident in history with something that has happened in our times.”

“So, maybe there is a misreading somewhere. I do not think that we need a conversation on this at all. It was a comment on something that is happening in India, and it was something about what has happened in India,” he said.