With BJP leader Yogi Adityanath comparing film star Shah Rukh Khan to militant Hafiz Saeed and the party running advertisements in Bihar newspapers attacking Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on his allies’ recent statements on beef-eating, politics took a turn for the worse on Wednesday.
The controversial advertisement was carried just a day before the Muslim-dominated Seemanchal region of Bihar goes to the polls in the last phase of elections, leading to buzz that the aim was to polarise Hindu votes. The poll panel asked parties not to publish ads on polling day without certification. Mr. Adityanath’s attack on Mr. Khan came in the context of the actor’s remark that “religious intolerance is the worst thing”.“There is no difference between the language of film actor Shah Rukh Khan and terror mastermind Hafiz Sayeed,” Mr. Adityanath, Gorakhpur MP, said. His statement came soon after BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya withdrew his tweets that the film star’s “heart was in Pakistan”, and said he didn’t mean to hurt anyone.
While the BJP had distanced itself from Mr. Vijayvargiya’s statement, the provocative statement of Mr. Adityanath opened the party to the charge of sullying the political discourse. Even the BJP’s ally Shiv Sena, with which the party has a troubled relation at present, said Mr. Khan should not be attacked “because he is a Muslim”.
Congress leader Tom Vadakkan condemned Mr. Adityanath’s statement. However, Union Minority Affairs Minister Najma Heptullah said that her party leaders would not have said such things if Mr. Khan had not made such a statement. “If he feels some people are saying wrong things, he should tell them the correct path rather than making such statements,” she said, underlining that Mr. Khan was a popular actor and people listened to him.
Union Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu distanced the party from Mr. Vijayvargiya’s remarks but added that the Congress should allow Parliament to function if it wanted a debate on “intolerance”.
“There can be a debate in Parliament: Who is tolerant, who imposed emergency, who gagged media, who had superseded judges and who was responsible for the genocide of Sikhs? What happened to Kashmiri Pandits,” Mr. Naidu said, attacking the Congress.
What made matters worse was the BJP’s official ad splashed across Bihar newspapers.
Displaying the image of a woman hugging a cow, the ad carried recent statements by Mr. Kumar’s alliance partners Lalu Prasad and Raghuvansh Prasad Singh of the Rashtriya Janata Dal and Karnataka Chief Minister and Congress leader Siddaramiah allegedly favouring beef-eating.
The advertisement further asked Mr. Kumar why he kept mum over repeated insults to the cow by his alliance partners. The Janata Dal (United) complained to the Election Commission.
The poll panel asked parties not to publish ads on polling day without certification.
