At least two complaints have been filed against ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)Lawmaker Pragya Singh Thakur over her alleged hate speech in Karnataka’s Shivamogga on Sunday.
Trinamool Congress leader Saket Gokhale filed a complaint with Shivamogga Superintendent of Police GK Mithun Kumar, stating that Thakur had made extremely “inflammatory remarks designed to incite violence between different communities”. He added that she encouraged the breakdown of law and order by advocating using arms.
“In her speech, Pragya Singh Thakur said that those who love jihad should get a similar response. Keep your girls safe, strengthen their values and keep guns in your homes,” Gokhale said in his complaint.
Hindu groups use love jihad to describe relationships between Muslim men and Hindu women.
In another complaint, Tehseen Poonawalla alleged that Thakur had made a “highly blasphemous and derogatory speech against the minority community”.
He said Tagore’s speech was an open call for using arms leading to mob violence against the minority community. “…[t]he speech has the potential effect of intolerance, hatred, violence, among others, against a particular community, which fairly and squarely constitutes an offense under the … Indian Penal Code.”
Congress President Priyank Kharge termed it unfortunate that a Member of Parliament made such remarks. He added that they would also file a complaint against Thakur. “She is accused of terrorism. I don’t know why Karnataka is supporting such an atmosphere.”
Thakur is one of the accused in the September 2008 bomb blast near a mosque in Malegaon, Maharashtra which left six people dead.