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Varun Gandhi's anti-Sikh remarks make fresh news
WSN Network

Lucknow: In the din over the crisis within the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the issue of Varun Gandhi's hate speeches was almost buried, and buried even deeply were the allegations that the hatered was spewed against not just the Muslims but also the Sikh community. Now, a new complaint have brought up fresh allegations on this score as the Congress candidate who lost against Varun in the Pilibhit Lok Sabha poll as accused the Gandhi scion of referring to Sikhs as "Khalistanis" besides calling Muslims "Pakistanis".

Incidentally, Varun Gandhi's mother Maneka Gandhi, who is a former minister and BJP MP, is also a Sikh.

A 35-page complaint given to the state's principal home secretary Fateh Bahadur last week cites a speech Varun Gandhi delivered at Mathia temple in Deshnagar locality of Pilibhit on March 6.

While his hate speeches on March 7 and 8 against Muslims are under police investigation, his alleged anti-Sikh utterances in Deshnagar went unreported until V.M. Singh, a former MLA and a known farmer leader, found the transcripts recently.

"The applicant seeks permission from the state to initiate criminal proceedings against Varun Feroze Gandhi for indulging and misusing religion to garner votes and also spitting venom and creating a divide between communities to reap electoral benefits", reads the complaint.

Singh said: "The transcript of the speech delivered by Varun on March 6, 2009, in Pilibhit reveals that apart from trying to create a divide between Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims to secure votes in the election, he made personal attacks not only against me but also against the Sikh religion."

The complainant said the state election authorities had failed to initiate any action in the matter and he had no other avenue but to turn towards the state government. He said he has procured a copy of the microchip with the recordings of the anti-Sikh speech and has provided the microchip and the mobile phone with the audio recordings in April 2009 to the authorities.

2 September 2009
 

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