BJP disowns Varun Gandhi's speech

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today sought to distance itself from the alleged anti-Muslim speeches of Varun Gandhi, its nominee for the Pilibhit Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh.

“The BJP completely disowns and dissociates itself from the statements attributed to Varun Gandhi,” BJP spokesperson Ravishankar Prasad told reporters.

Prasad’s statement came as the Election Commission (EC) cracked the whip and ordered that Gandhi’s all speeches and public rallies would henceforth be tracked with video recordings.

Yesterday, the 29-year-old BJP leader had earned the wrath of the poll panel for his reported communal remarks at a recent election rally in Pilibhit.

Gandhi is yet to file his nomination for Pilibhit as elections to the constituency would be held on May 13, the last of the five-phase Lok Sabha polls.

Following the orders of the EC, the Uttar Pradesh government has filed a criminal case against Gandhi for his alleged hateful speech. The Commission has slapped him with a notice.

Meanwhile, Varun has alleged that “his speech was doctored and there was a conspiracy to project him as a communal person”.

“I am proud of my faith and not apologetic about it. I am a Gandhi, a Hindu and an Indian in equal measure,” he said in a statement, adding he was a victim of a political conspiracy.

He claimed, “Those are not my words and that is not my voice. I have not made any communal statement. I stand by what I have said and what I have not said, I will strongly refute.”

BJP sources said Gandhi had consulted senior party leaders after returning from Pilibhit on his response to the EC notice, which he has to reply by Friday. However, Syed Shahnawaz Hussain and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, senior Muslim leaders in the party, have strongly protested against Varun’s remarks and asked him to issue an apology.

Sources said it was under pressure from Naqvi and Hussain as well as the mounting criticism from political parties that the BJP had distanced itself from Gandhi’s remarks.

Gandhi, who is member of the BJP’s national executive, is projected by the party as a scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty to counter Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi in UP.

The EC, meanwhile, has shifted the Additional District Magistrate and the Superintendent of Police, Pilibhit, in the wake of Varun Gandhi episode.