Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s most trusted aide and former stock-broker Amit Shah. PHOTO: REUTERS
When it comes to making speeches during the election campaign, Indian politicians never miss the chance to make them inflammatory and incite hate and anger, sometimes on the basis of caste but mostly on religion.
Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s most trusted aide and former stock-broker Amit Shah has done it this time: Shah has been issued a notice from the Election Commission over his recent hate speech in the town of Bijnore in the state of Uttar Pradesh.
While addressing a gathering, Shah asked the Jat community to avenge ‘insult’, referring to the previous year’s communal riots in Muzaffarnagar.
Shah, the lieutenant of Narendra Modi, has always been a controversial figure; his name first figured in 2005 for his role in hatching a conspiracy to kill alleged terrorist Sohrabuddin and his wife Kausar Bi. He was charged with what federal agencies claim was a staged encounter to eliminate Sohrabuddin.
In 2010, CBI charged Shah with murder, extortion, destruction of evidence and criminal conspiracy in the ‘fake’ Sohrabuddin encounter. Shah pleaded innocence and resigned from his post of Gujarat home minister.
In September 2013, a former top Gujarat policeman, DG Vanzara, released an explosive letter from prison accusing Shah of using dirty tactics in Gujarat.
In November 2013, Shah was also implicated in a scandal dubbed ‘stalkergate’, in which he purportedly ordered police officers to trail a woman, ordering them to report her every move.
Currently on bail, Shah is said to be a close confidant of Narendra Modi.
Amidst all these controversies surrounding Shah, last year he was appointed as chief strategist for Uttar Pradesh.
The Muzzafarnagar communal riots in September last year saw many parties jumping into the fray and attempting to polarise the votes. Shah was on this bandwagon, where BJP fielded two candidates linked to the Muzaffarnagar riots.
Once again BJP threw the dice back to the old policies of religion-based politics and that too just before when BJP released its manifesto talking of bringing back the issue of Ram Mandir, which was largely missing in the election campaigns.
Uzair Rizvi is a student of Journalism at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. He tweets @RizviUzair
Published in The Express Tribune, April 12th, 2014.
COMMENTS (11)
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@Mohsin: Don't care about our side of muslims.Do care about Shias,ahmadis,sikhs and hindus who are getting killed every day in Pakistan.
@Bruteforce: I dont know who told you all these lies and fake stories; please do read authentic books not written by Indian third class authors who are against Muslims fr day one
You guys throw stones and give death threats to your cricketers if they lose just a single cricket match.....go n learn some tolerance
Now coming back to the point; In Pakistan we damn care who ll be your PM, does it really matter for us? The only concern we have is the safety of Muslims in India to whom you and your party killed in thousands during gujrat riots....
Uzair Rizvi: Is this you are getting education in jamia milia islamia. .it seems you are doing biased reporting . you have not written any thing on AJAM KHAN .as he is also banned by election commission of india and he also spreading hate, anger among people on the name of religion . @rizvi you are favoring muslim as you are muslim. you are betraying your profession .
Dear Pakistani Friends,
You are always been made victim of propaganda. I advice you to go all Indian newspaper and find out the real scenario if u are interested in Indian news. I have noticed that all news related to India in your newspaper are biased and present one side of issue. Why is to so, I am not fully confident but can say may be these people are catering need of your audience.
Regards
Sandeep
murder, extortion, destruction and criminal conspiracy. This is going to be the fate of India. Poor Indians will have to live with Modi. A face not acceptable, even by western standards
@BruteForce: I am sorry,but i don't care if pakistanis accept modi or shah, Indians should not accept them.This dually, full of hatred do not deserve to represent india.India is a secular country.The future leader should take every community in india, along.I will vote for corrupt and inefficient politician,then to bring these hatred filled vultures.
Every time in every article about muslims in India, The word 'allegedly' is used for one side and not the other. Wonder why?
And you conveniently left out hate speeches made by Akbaruddin Owaisi, Azam Khan and Abu Azmi...
Hope your next analysis will be on Azam Khan and Abu Azmi of Samajwadi Party.....right......?
@Uzair: I am looking forward to your article on Akbaruddin Owaisi next.
I don't understand this news item.
If people who called for Direct Action against (The British?) the powerless Hindus are icons and their pictures adore the Pakistani currency, why is so hard to accept Modi?
After Direct Action day, there was continuous bloodshed and more than 5000 were killed in Muslim majority state of Bengal in 1946. No event in modern India can compare to it.
The person who inaugurated the Direct Action and personally called for it goes on to become Pakistan's Governor General. The CM of the then Bengal goes on to become the elected PM of Pakistan.
But, why is it so hard for Pakistanis to digest Modi or Amit Shah?
The principle applicable to Pakistanis, is not applicable to Indians?
One thing is for sure, Modi or Amit Shah will never be on the Indian currency. They are just politicians.