‘Hindu nationalist trolls’ tried to smear me as ISIS supporter: Al-Jazeera TV host

New Delhi: Al Jazeera TV host Mehdi Hasan came under a barrage of abusive comments after the telecast of his interview with BJP general secretary Ram Madhav in a show titled ‘Is Modi’s India flirting with fascism?.’

Mehdi Hasan took to the social networking site Twitter to say that the ‘Hindu nationalist trolls’ have tried to smear him as a closet Islamist, a Pakistani and an ISIS supporter.

“Over the past 48 hours, Hindu nationalist trolls have tried to smear me as a closet Islamist, a Pakistani and an ISIS supporter,” he tweeted.

He also wrote he had never got such a Twitter response such as this in his career as a host of the Al-Jazeera’s Head to Head programme over past three years.

“I've done 30 odd @AJHeadtoHead interviews with guests from around the world over past 3 years. But never had a Twitter response like this,” he said.

In the talk show, Ram Madhav had told Mehdi Hasan that India, Pakistan and Bangladesh would reunite one day to create "Akhand Bharat" or an 'Undivided India'.

"The RSS believes that one day these parts, which for historical reasons separated only 60 years ago, will again, through popular goodwill, come together and AkhandBharat will be created," Ram Madhav said. He said that as an Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh member, he also holds that view.

Madhav, who was deputed in the BJP last year, added: "The only outstanding issue with regard to the Kashmir problem is the Kashmir under Pakistan occupation. Kashmir is an integral part of India. It has been proved time and again that it's an integral part of India."

The BJP, however, has distanced itself from Madhav’s comments on Akhand Bharat clarifying that that neither the party nor the party’s government shared the view.

Madhav, during the course of the interview, while replying to a question, had made offensive remark 'Your ISIS' to Mehdi Hasan. Hasan took back stressing his remark 'My ISIS?' thrice. Although Madhav did not apologise for his remark, he corrected himself by explaining that he was just trying to say is ISIS.

Mehdi later took to Twitter and said, “I did a tough interview with a BJP politician. Silly me. Now the right-wing, anti-Muslim trolls, plus Christine Fair, are after me.”

He went on saying: “Actually, I'm British and my parents are from India. But don't let that stop your racism, bigotry or ignorance.”