The Bharatiya Janta Party has served a show cause notice to Haryana State party’s chief media coordinator Suraj Pal Amu seeking explanation over his reported controversial remarks offering Rs 10 crore reward for beheading Padmavati’s director Sanjay leela Bhansali and actor Deepika Padukone.
With the Padmavati controversy growing bigger each passing day, the BJP leader Suraj Pal Amu, in an attempt to hog the limelight had on Sunday announced reward for beheading them and also, threatened actor Ranveer Singh.
After a youth from Meerut announced Rs 5 crore bounty a few days ago, Amu had reportedly made remarks about doubling the offer during an event in New Delhi saying, “We will reward the ones beheading them with Rs 10 crore and also take care of their family needs.”
The BJP has however distanced itself from Amu’s remarks saying he had made these in his personal capacity.
“A show cause notice has been served to him and he has been asked to explain the remarks made by him,” said in-charge of Haryana BJP affairs, Anil Jain while talking to the mediapersons on Monday.
Jain said, “The BJP doesn’t have any link with such type of comments. We are also mulling what action could be taken against him under the constitution of the party.”
“Respecting women is the top priority of the BJP and Haryana has maintained it. The rule of law prevails in Haryana and such fatwas won't have any meaning,” he said.
On the controversy surrounding Padmavati, Jain maintained that the BJP feels no one should distort the history in any manner.
The upcoming movie Padmavati has been facing protest from Rajput community and Karni Sena activists, who have demanded ban on it for allegedly tampering with historical facts.
In Haryana, senior Minister Anil Vij had recently demanded a nationwide ban on the upcoming epic period drama while another Cabinet Minister Vipul Goel had written to Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani seeking her intervention to ensure that there is no distortion of historical facts in the movie, if it is allowed to be released on December 1.
However, the BJP leader Suraj Pal Amu went a step ahead of these Cabinet Ministers and announced a bounty of Rs 10 crore for beheading Bhansali and Deepika Padukone.
Amu had a day before also said, “How can we allow somebody to distort history and mislead the people by projecting the heroic character of Rani Padmavati in a poor light while glorifying the villains of history. We will not allow the release of this film at any cost.”
Amu had even lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for remaining silent on the issue and said he would quit the party if needed.
“The PM, Rajnath Singh, Rahul Gandhi, everyone is silent on the issue. Modi speaks only in time of elections, he has to speak out on the issue. PM has to exercise his powers to strike down the film,” he had said.
The BJP leader had also warned actor Ranveer Singh, saying he would break his legs if he did not take back his words supporting the director and the film.
Taking strong exception to the threat against actor Deepika Padukone given by the BJP leader, the National Commission of Women (NCW) has written to the director general of police (DGP) Haryana, requesting to look into the matter immediately and take appropriate action in accordance with the law.
The NCW has also asked him to apprise the commission of appropriate action taken at the earliest.