Delhi Minorities Commission Asks EC to Act against BJP Leaders’ Offensive Statements

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NEW DELHI, JANUARY 29— Taking note of the offensive statements by several BJP leaders during the current electoral campaign, the Delhi Minorities Commission has written to the Chief Electoral Officer of Delhi to take action against these leaders.

In his letter to the Delhi election body, minority commission chairman Dr. Zafarul-Islam Khan said: “BJP leaders from Shri Amit Shah to Shri Anurag Thakur to Shri Kapil Mishra to Shri Parvesh Verma etc. are actively indulging in very provocative statements like, if elected, BJP will pull down mosques on govt. lands, Shaheen Bagh protesters will enter Hindu homes and rape Hindu women, and that the forthcoming Delhi elections are between India and Pakistan….”

“These provocative and totally baseless statements not only vitiate the atmosphere and try to polarise the voters using lies, these may easily lead to riots on our streets,” said Dr Khan in his letter.

Dr. Khan told the Chief Electoral Officer that “Since you are the legal authority in Delhi to check such illegal behaviour, it is our earnest request to you to take cognisance of these provocative statements and punish the culprits suitably by stopping them from campaigning, cancelling candidature of candidates and filing FIRs”.

Regarding BJP MP’s claim about alleged “illegal mosques”, Dr. Khan said: “As regards the “illegal mosques” issue, this [Dehi Minorities] Commission had taken cognisance of Shri Parvesh Verma’s earlier claim in this regard and had conducted an enquiry which disproved these allegations.”

Dr Khan attached with his letter copies of some of recent abusive and offensive statements of BJP leaders like their chanting of “goli maaro saalon ko” (shoot the rascals) or that the protesters at Shaheen Bagh will enter Hindu houses and rape Hindu women.

Dr. Khan also attached with his letter a copy of the fact-finding report about Parvesh Verma’s earlier claim that Delhi mosques are built on govt. lands. The said report totally trashed his claims.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission of India has issued show-cause notice to Union Minister Anurag Thakur and MP Parvesh Verma. Last week, the poll body had banned BJP candidate Kapil Mishra from campaigning for two days following his provocative comments about the Delhi assembly elections and Shaheen Bagh protest.

Election for the 70-member Delhi Assembly will be held on February 8 and votes will be counted on February 11. In the last assembly polls in 2015, Aam Aadmi Party had won 67 seats and BJP 3.

In the beginning of the current election campaign, BJP leaders had raised the issues of development to counter Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal but as they failed in their attempts, they shifted their focus on Shaheen Bagh. In the last three days, they had made all-out efforts to malign the anti-CAA protest of Shaheen Bagh in order to polarize the voters on communal lines.

Since Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) was passed by the Parliament on December 11, there have been massive nationwide protests against the discriminatory law which seeks to give Indian citizenship only to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Christian, Jain and Parsi migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

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