Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan at a bilateral meeting with US President Donald Trump at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on January 21, 2020.
- Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has once again likened the Indian government's ideology to that of the Nazis.
- At a Wednesday panel discussion in Davos, Khan said the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ideology, adopted by India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, was "inspired by ... Hitler, and Hitler's brown shirts."
- Tensions between India and Pakistan remain high over the disputed region of Kashmir.
- Khan likened the Indian government to Nazis multiple times last August, when New Delhi cancelled the semi-autonomous status of Kashmir.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Pakistan's prime minister has - again - likened the Indian government to the Nazis, and said the threat of an all-out conflict between their governments over the disputed region of Kashmir has not gone away.
At a Wednesday panel discussion at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, which Business Insider attended, Imran Khan slammed the close ties between India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to the right-wing Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) ideology.
The RSS advocates Hindu nationalism. Since BJP leader Narendra Modi's election to prime minister in 2012, the Indian government has appeared to undermine Muslim rights.
India cancelled mostly-Muslim Kashmir's political autonomy last year; and a new Citizenship Amendment Bill requires people to declare their religion before they can become citizens.
Khan told the Davos panel on Wednesday: "Just read Google and the founding fathers of RSS and read how they were inspired by ... Hitler, and Hitler's brown shirts. RSS has these guys, four million people trained, almost in similar patterns."
Nicholas Carlson/Business Insider
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan at a panel discussion at Davos, Switzerland, on January 22, 2020.
Khan has likened the Indian government to Nazis before, particularly after the Indian government cancelled Kashmir's semi-autonomy and imposed a total communications blackout there. (The blackout is still ongoing in some parts of the region.)
In a series of tweets posted last August, when Kashmir tensions were at their peak, he said India's actions in Kashmir amounted to "ethnic cleansing" and compared the ideology of the Indian government to "the Nazi Aryan Supremacy."
Around the same time, he also accused India of trying "to change demography of Kashmir through ethnic cleansing, and that "the curfew, crackdown & impending genocide" was "inspired by Nazi ideology." He also compared global inaction on the issue to ignoring Hitler.
Khan on Wednesday also called on international bodies, such as the UN, to help arbitrate the Kashmir issue between India and Pakistan.
India has long insisted, citing two treaties, that Kashmir is a bilateral issue. Pakistan has in recent months asked other world leaders - including President Donald Trump - to wade in.
"I see the potential of a conflict, and it is important that before things get out of hand, the bodies that were formed to stop this sort of a conflict should come into action," Khan said.
"I know that the UN Security Council has met three times since fifth August on this issue of Kashmir, but it is important that this issue is resolved," he said, referring to the day India cancelled the region's semi-autonomy.