NPR Producer Slammed For "Hinduphobia" Tweet, Forced To Resign

A man waves India's national flag during an address by yoga guru Ramdev to his supporters at Ramlila grounds in New Delhi — A man waves India's national flag during an address by yoga guru Swami Ramdev to his supporters at the Ramlila grounds on the first day of Ramdev's fast in New Delhi June 4, 2011. India's most famous yoga guru began a fast to the death on Saturday to demand reforms including the death penalty for corrupt officials in an anti-graft campaign that has undermined an embattled Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The saffron-robed and bearded Swami Ramdev, who rose from an illiterate family to host a television show with 30 million viewers and own a "peace" island in Scotland, sat with thousands of followers in a tent the size of four football pitches in Delhi. REUTERS Reuters

National Public Radio (NPR) producer Furkan Khan came under a lot of criticism on Twitter after she made a remark saying that giving up Hinduism could solve all the problems of Hindus.

"If Indians give up Hinduism, they will also be solving most of their problems what with all the piss drinking and dung worshipping," she tweeted.

Hinduphobia is rampant & it's in your face. Bigots don't care & won't apologise. Becoz the so called liberals, & politically correct snowflakes will simply look the other way.
This woman btw is not an illiterate from the boondocks. She's the India rep of NPR pic.twitter.com/FXjscZLdCp
— Smita Barooah (@smitabarooah) September 10, 2019

Khan was called out on Twitter and criticized for her "bigotry" and "Hinduphobia". NPR too distanced itself from the controversy as they termed her statement as "unacceptable" and said it did not reflect their views.

“[NPR] regrets the unacceptable tweet by New Delhi producer Furkan Khan. This comment does not reflect the views of NPR journalists and is a violation of our ethical standards. She has publicly apologized for her tweet and has resigned from NPR,” a statement released by the radio said.

Khan later deleted her tweet and apologized for hurting the sentiments of people.

"I wholeheartedly apologize for my tweet earlier. It was ill considered & unacceptable. I deleted it. I didn't mean to disparage Hinduism or hurt anyone's feelings. It doesn't reflect my beliefs and principles. Please accept my sincere regret. I'll be off Twitter for a while."

She also resigned from NPR, as people called out NPR to fire the New Delhi producer.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has spoken on the issue of Hinduphobia on various occasions. “It is this country’s misfortune that when some people hear the words ‘Om’ and ‘Cow’, they get triggered. They think the country has gone back to the 16th century,” OpIndia quoted PM Modi as saying.

This is not the first time Khan has been involved in a Twitter controversy. Earlier she had said that the situation regarding Kashmiri Pandits was a "normal conflict collateral damage."

This comes at a time when the government has refuted reports from international media including BBC, Washington Post, and Reuters, claiming they were showing India in a negative light.

NPR news analyst Juan Williams too had his contract terminated after he made racist remarks against Muslims on Fox News.

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