Won’t apologise either to Modi or BJP, says Cong candidate from Saharanpur
Apparently eyeing the minority vote-bank, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday went ahead with campaigning for party’s candidate from Saharanpur Imran Masood, who was arrested in the wee hours and later sent to 14-day judicial custody for his hate speech against BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. The BJP, on its part, moved the Election Commission demanding strict action against Masood, who had threatened to “chop Modi into pieces”.
Rahul publicly disapproved of Masood’s remarks at a rally in Ghaziabad even as the word was out about the cancellation of his Saharanpur rally due to the waging controversy. However, a seemingly undeterred Rahul later not only went to Saharanpur but also shared the dais with Masood’s wife Shaima.
Rahul sharing the dais with Shaima assumes significance as the Congress may have to change its candidate from the seat in the wake of the police case against Masood besides the possibility of the Election Commission also taking a strong action against him.
Without naming Masood, Rahul said his remarks militated against the party’s ideology and that he should not have made such a statement against the Opposition leader.
Masood, nevertheless, remained unrepentant. “It is all BJP’s plot. I don’t have any remorse as I did no wrong. I will not apologise either to Narendra Modi or to the BJP. I will go to jail 100 times,” he said, as he was being taken by police to a district prison after Deoband Judicial Magistrate Archana Rani rejected his bail plea and sent him to judicial custody.
Senior Congress leader Rita Bahuguna Joshi, however, backed Masood saying it would not be a wise decision to remove him just seven days before polling and that too there seems to be some conspiracy given the timing of the release of the video footage, which she claimed was 10 months old.
SSP Saharanpur Manoj Kumar said, “We received a video footage of Masood. Based on its review a case was registered in Deoband police station against him. Cases have been registered against him under Section 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings or any class by insulting religion or religious beliefs), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 506 (criminal intimidation) of IPC, Section 125 (promoting enmity between classes in connection with election) of Representation of People Act, and 310 SC/ST Act.”
A BJP delegation met the Chief Election Commissioner here demanding strict action against the Congress candidate. “Such kinds of statements reflect a Talibani mindset. These kinds of incidents hinder peaceful and unbiased elections in a democracy,” said BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.
“We have asked EC to take strict action not only against Masood, but also the Congress as in such cases the party is equally responsible and must be questioned. This is not the first time that the Congress has made a blunder like this, there are a dozen of such incidents,” he added.
Earlier, following Rahul’s disapproval of Masood’s remarks, ClP leader Pradeep Mathur had informed media, “Rahul Gandhi’s rally is being postponed. The next date for it will be decided later on.”