BJP State president Tamilisai Soundararajan on Tuesday defended her decision to file a complaint with the police against research scholar Lois Sofia for allegedly raising slogans describing the BJP government as ‘fascist’ on board a Chennai-Thoothukudi flight on Monday. “Anyone else in my place would have behaved in a worse manner,” she told journalists at the Chennai airport.
Claiming that she had acted responsibly following the incident, Ms. Soundararajan said she lodged a complaint as she suspected that some (extremist) organisations were behind Ms. Sofia’s actions.
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Offended over ‘a word’
According to her, she was occupying seat number 3 and Ms. Sofia, seat number 8 on the flight. After the flight landed at Thoothukudi, she picked up her luggage from the overhead baggage cabin. “When I passed by her (Ms. Sofia), she raised her hands and shouted ‘down with fascist BJP government.’ In the interest of civility, I did not respond or object to the remark inside the aircraft. At the arrival area, she stared at me, and I asked her whether what she did was proper. To this, she said it was her right to express her views, and she uttered some words which I can’t even repeat. I said we can debate it [the issues] on a stage, but not on an aircraft, in which people have a right to travel peacefully,” she claimed.
She said Ms. Sofia continued to use “a word”, which aroused her suspicion that the research scholar belonged to some (extremist) organisation, and hence, she filed a complaint.
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The BJP leader claimed that at 10.22 a.m. on Monday, Ms. Sofia tweeted about her intention to raise slogans against the BJP (the tweet has since been unavailable). “This means she planned it. It is proper?” she asked.
Insisting that she had a right to lodge a complaint, Ms. Soundararajan said it was up to the police to examine the same. “You go to her [Ms. Sofia’s] Facebook account. Through her posts, you will know what her background is,” she added.