EC examining Amit Shah's "revenge" remarks, faces call for ban

The Election Commission is examining the controversial "revenge" remarks by Narendra Modi's close aide Amit Shah even as it faced fresh calls today from Congress to ban him from campaigning in Uttar Pradesh.
Poll authorities in UP sent the CD of the remarks made by Shah in Muzaffarnagar--which witnessed communal violence last year--along with the report of District Election Officer to the Election Commission here.
Sources said the Chief Electoral Officer of UP had yesterday taken cognisance of Shah's statement and had sought the CD along with a detailed report from the district authorities. Shah is not a candidate for the Lok Sabha polls.

The statement has been sent to the Nirvachan Sadan-- the headquarters of the Election Commission here, they said.
The EC is likely to take a call on the issue at its meeting tomorrow, the sources said.
Union Minister and Congress leader Beni Prasad Verma alleged SP and BJP were hand in glove with each other in communalising elections and sought a "ban" by the Election Commission on campaigning by Modi and Shah in UP.

"The elections are deliberately being communalised by SP and BJP...Election commission should take cognisance of it and ban Modi and Shah in Uttar Pradesh," Verma told reporters in Lucknow. Congress yesterday demanded Shah's arrest.

Condemning the remarks, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi rejected BJP's defence of it as "flagrant crude defence and justification of communalism" and accused it of mastering the art of "hypocrisy".
"Shah's rank communal remark shows that BJP does not understand the idea of India and its agenda is to divide communities and get votes. That is the only agenda of this communal party of India," party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi told reporters here.
He also rejected any parallel between Shah's remarks in Muzaffarnagar and Congress President Sonia Gandhi's meeting with Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid Syed Ahmed Bukhari, saying, "Do not compare an elephant with an ant".

Shah triggered a controversy with his comment that the general elections, especially in western UP, is "an election for honour. It is an election to take revenge for the insult. It an election to teach a lesson to those who have committed injustice".
The speech came under attack from political parties which accused him of vitiating the atmosphere in the Muzaffarnagar region, which witnessed one of the worst communal riots between Hindus and Muslims in August-September last year.