Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Muzaffarnagar, Vikram Saini, has demanded a law for taking stringent action against those complaining of feeling ‘unsafe’ in India, calling them traitors.
“Give me a ministry and I will explode bombs behind those who aren’t loyal to the country. Not even one will be left,” the Muzaffarnagar legislator said on Friday. However, Saini later defended his remark saying he was merely speaking in his usual language, the one spoken in his village.
Asked if he was willing to be a human bomb for such traitors, Saini said, “Army has several bombs and I will drop them on these traitors. This is my personal remark and should not be linked to my party.”
“Hum to desh deewane hai (We are patriots),” he said, adding there should be a provision for punishment to act as a deterrent to such traitors.
“I said that those who feel unsafe in the country and feel insecure here should either leave the country or the government should make some arrangement for them. Their comments should invite action,” Saini said after ‘bhumi pujan’ for setting up of a 151-foot tricolour at Rampur Tiraha. The function was also attended by three other BJP MLAs from the district.
The MLA’s comment comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during a recent interview, rejected the contention of actor Naseeruddin Shah that minorities were feeling unsafe in India due to lynchings. Modi had said that some people sense insecurity around poll time because of ‘agenda’.
Shah had said that the death of a cow was given more importance than the killing of a cop and a local after alleged cow slaughter, referring to the Bulandshahr violence on December 3. After the incident, the police maintained that zeroing in on cow slaughterers was the most important aspect of the case.
The actor also expressed anxiety over the well-being of his children, who he said, had not been brought up following any religion and would not be able to identify themselves on religious lines if confronted by a bloodthirsty mob.
Reacting to Saini’s comments, UP Congress chief Raj Babbar said that he was “talking like a terrorist”.
“The Chief Minister says ‘thok do’, a legislator aspiring to be a minister says ‘will bomb people’. He should be arrested and punished. He is speaking like a terrorist, must be probed for terror links,” Babbar said.