Monday, March 16, 2009

Varun Gandhi's provocation: Anti-Muslim speech in Pilibhit, threatens to cut and behead!

Varun, the son of late Sanjay Gandhi and Maneka, apparently forgot all sense of decency when he openly abused Muslims and threatened to behead them.

At a rally in Pilibhit, Varun declared his war from the stage and roared against Muslims. Using an abusive term for the community, he openly said that he would cut such heads after the elections.

Link to the Video on Youtube. The comments tell us about the spread of fascism and how fanatic some of us have become in our country.

Raising his hands, he repeatedly said that this not the Congress' symbol of hand but is the BJP's arm that will behead these &K&t*%* (extremely derogatory word which is a highly offensive slang to describe the community). It was both sad and shocking, coming from a 28-year-old politician.

[Yeh itne ghinaune shabd hain ki ham aapko sunaa bhi nahiN sakte: The anchor had to say that some words and remarks were so disgusting that they couldn't be aired. Though the channel inserted a sound at that partiular word, still it could be understood]

Amid chants of Jai Shri Ram, the young face of BJP and the scion of Nehru-Gandhi delivered not just a speech of extreme vitriol but threatened to kill and cut heads and hands. He didn't even spare the Congress either.

This part of the speech during the campaigning was not adequately mentioned in a few reports published in papers regarding the DM's notice to Varun for his diatribe.

Pilibhit is away from major Cities and mostly the reports mentioned that it was a provocative speech but not what exactly the provocation was, though there was some mention about his warning to cut hands and heads of those who were anti-Hindu (including Congress in his speech).

Varun is the BJP candidate from Pilibhit. His mother Maneka has repeatedly won from the same constituency and Muslims who constitute a large number of electorate have voted for her even when she was independent. But this is not the issue. The issue is how irresponsible a politican or any public personality can be and is it tolerable?

Watching the speech [and the comments] anybody would be horrified as to what must have got into his head. And this is the young man, who was praised as a poet and a man of vision! A relatively new channel India News got the video of Varun's speech and it telecast the entire speech live.

In his speech Varun lays himself bare, comes out of his sophisticated cocoon and tries to fan religious passions by such hatespeak which is unbelievable to hear in any civilised society. He repeatedly claimed that he would perform the act after the elections. EC has sought explanation. Let's see what happens.

They are dangerous, have scary names

Varun has delivered a number of speeches in various meetings. In one meeting he says that the Muslims have names that appear scary. They also look dangerous. If one comes across them at night, he may get frightened.

Then Varun takes the pledge of Gita and says that he would cut all such hands and taken on them solely. It's time the BJP should accept his fault and condemn it. Sadly, the spokesperson Venkaiah Naidu evaded all questions in this regard.

Even BJP leaders in Pilibhit shocked

Though this is just one offensive remark by Varun that has been caught on camera, local BJP leaders are no less shocked. Eminent journalist Sharat Pradhan, who has been covering UP for decades, writes that popular leaders like Naresh Verma have decided to stay away from campaign as they feel it has become too communal and divisive.

A Sikh leader was even asked to leave the gathering. Several Hindu sammelans have been organised where Varun has almost 'gone out of hand', say BJP leaders. Read the complete IANS report about Varun's campaign and other remarks here.

For those commenting on this blog:

Many comments have been moderated because of the abusive language. However, to others I must repeat that they should have heard the whole speech.

In some channels and papers only the particular sentence 'Anybody who would harm Hindus...' has been reproduced. Had this been the case, I won't have written this post. Please see the whole video. He uses the most abusive terms for Muslims.

Asks for them to be sent to Pakistan and lot of other things. When he uses that particular abusive word for Muslims, a 'beep' is introduced by channels. Those who still support him, must remember that this is how fascism spreads and it is our duty to fight such racist and fascist elements.

They must be reminded that there are laws to deal with lumpen elements. In this country we don't treat hatespeak as seriously as we should do. However, when we go to foreign countries, we expect great sensitivity.

Don't forget that in Britian, BBC sacked a popular female anchor for the off-air comment to an agency for sending a taxi with preferably a non-South Asian driver. This is the standard of sensitivity there.

And here we are tolerating abuses and what not! Had it not been the model code of conduct, he may have gotten away with all this even more easily. He is not apologetic and claims to be a victim of a political conspiracy, says that the tape is doctored. He even mocked at Mahatma Gandhi.

VIDEO LINK

And if someone has any doubts about how much is objectionable. Read the Indian Express report that published some of the Varun Gandhi's gems. Read the story.

[Latest update: Now Varun claims that he didn't say Katua (circumcised) rather had said Vote-Katwa. He perhaps thinks everybody is so gullible that they would be taken in by his 'innocent' shifts of stand every day. The Vote-katwa is generally a term used more in Bihar for smaller parties that just field candidates to cut votes of other parties and not aim at winning.]