Former chief minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis has, in a letter to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, sought stern action against Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) student leader Sharjeel Usmani for his “offensive” and “defamatory” statements at the second edition of Elgaar Parishad in Pune last week.
“It is strange that a young man comes to the State, sneers at Hindutva and leaves without any action against him. It is not only a source of great concern to the whole State but a major embarrassment to all of us. I hope that as soon as the Chief Minister receives this letter, the State government will file a case and take legal action against him for such utterances,” Mr. Fadnavis told reporters on Tuesday.
The BJP leader objected to Mr. Usmani’s alleged remarks on the “rot in Hindu society”.
“His [Mr. Usmani’s] statements show how wrong it was to re-allow such contentious events, even though the Chief Minister was well aware of what had happened during the first Elgaar Parishad in December 2017,” Mr. Fadnavis said, adding that the BJP would not permit anyone to the pollute the atmosphere of Maharashtra with such statements.
Stating that such “insulting” utterances were unacceptable to the people of Maharashtra and the entire Hindu community, Mr. Fadnavis, who was Chief Minister at the time of the first Elgaar Parishad and the subsequent Bhima-Koregaon riots, has demanded that the administration take strict and immediate action against Mr. Usmani.
The student leader had earlier been arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Police last year for his alleged role in the clashes that broke out during protests against the amended citizenship law on the AMU campus in December 2019.
A number of State BJP leaders have been putting pressure on the Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA govt. to take action against Mr. Usmani, against whom a complaint has been lodged at Pune’s Swargate police station.
BJP MLA Ram Kadam hit out against the ‘tardiness’ of the ruling Maha Vikas Agahdi government in taking action against Mr. Usmani even after three days of the event.
On Monday, advocate Pradeep Gawade, State unit secretary of the BJP’s youth wing - the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) had filed a complaint at Pune’s Swargate police station.
Following this, Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said the government would examine the speeches made at the event and take action, if anything objectionable was indeed found in them.
Organised by retired Bombay High Court judge B.G. Kolse-Patil, the second edition of the Elgaar Parishad was held on January 30 at the Ganesh Kala Krida Mandir in Pune.
Among those who attended were noted writer-activist Arundhati Roy and former IAS officer Kannan Gopinathan.
