FIR against Giriraj for ’go to Pak’ remark; BJP upset

mangaloretoday.com/ DHNS

PATNA, Apr 20, 2014, DHNS: An FIR was today filed against Bihar BJP leader Giriraj Singh, former BJP chief Nitin Gadkari and some other party leaders following a controversial remark by Singh that the Centre gave subsidy to those who exported beef and taxed those who reared cows.

 

An FIR was filed against Bihar BJP leader Giriraj Singh by Jharkhand police on Sunday over his inflammatory remark that those opposing Narendra Modi should go to Pakistan for which he was also pulled up by the party leadership.

Giriraj, who stirred a row by saying that those not backing Narendra Modi will have to go to Pakistan after elections, remained unmoved, even as the party top brass reprimanded him for his remarks, asking him not to make any such comment that could hurt the party’s prospects in the polls.

“There are some people in India who are pro-Pakistan. Why should such people live in India? This is what I said,” Giriraj told Deccan Herald, standing by his controversial remark that he made at a poll meeting in Jharkhand on Saturday.

The Congress and JD(U), however, moved the Election Commission (EC), demanding BJP leader’s arrest and ‘exemplary’ punishment. The Congress described Giriraj’s statement as “calculative” and intended to be made to exploit “communal feelings”.

The two parties demanded lodging of an FIR against former BJP president Nitin Gadkari too in this connection alleging that he shared the dais with Giriraj when he made the controversial remark.

Giriraj was Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Minister in the Nitish regime when the JD (U) ruled the state in alliance with the BJP. The irrepressible leader is BJP candidate from Bihar’s Nawada Lok Sabha constituency (where polling took place on April 10).

Treading cautiously since the EC’s warning to Modi’s close aide Amit Shah, the BJP has distanced itself from the Singh’s remark, saying he has been conveyed the ‘displeasure’ of the party’s top brass over his comment.

In Patna, senior BJP leader and former deputy chief minister of Bihar Sushil Kumar Modi said he did not approve of Giriraj’s jibe.