It’s obvious the celebrated Michelin-starred chef Atul Kochhar does not know his roast poussin from his lamb rump. For starters, how could an apparently savvy, accomplished and trained chef not tell the difference between Muslim and Islam when he castigated Bollywood actor Priyanka Chopra? In the tweet to Chopra, Kochhar taunted her saying, “It’s sad to see that you have not respected the sentiments of Hindus who have been terrorised by Islam over 2000 years. Shame on you.” It was in reference to an episode of Chopra’s US television series, Quantico, where she busts a Hindu terror cell set out to implicate Pakistan.
In one broad sweep, Kochhar has demonised both Islam and Indian Muslims while blaming the country’s history of foreign Muslim rule, with absolutely no concern for accuracy or veracity of facts and history. If Kochhar had cared to know, it was not Islamic terrorism but invasion and conquest by diverse Muslim rulers who came to India, with their own cultures, ethnicity, identity, exceptionalities; beginning with Mahmud Ghazni, Qutubuddins and the Delhi Sultanate to the Mughals.
