Lucknow: While Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Varun Gandhi's hate speeches against Muslims are already a matter of record, there are fresh allegations that he also spoke against the Sikh community during the election campaign, officials said on Wednesday.
The Congress candidate who lost against Varun Gandhi in the Pilibhit Lok Sabha election has in a complaint to the Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday said Gandhi had referred to Sikhs as "Khalistanis" besides calling Muslims "Pakistanis".
Varun Gandhi's mother Maneka Gandhi, who is a former minister and BJP MP, is also a Sikh.
The 35-page complaint was given to the state's principal home secretary Fateh Bahadur on Tuesday. It cites a speech Varun Gandhi delivered at Mathia temple in Deshnagar locality of Pilibhit on March 6.
While his hate speeches on March 7 and 8 against Muslims are under police investigation, his alleged anti-Sikh utterances in Deshnagar went unreported until VM Singh, a former MLA and a known farmer leader, found the transcripts recently.
"The applicant seeks permission from the state to initiate criminal proceedings against Mr Varun Feroze Gandhi for indulging and misusing religion to garner votes and also spitting venom and creating a divide between communities to reap electoral benefits", reads the complaint.
Singh said: "The transcript of the speech delivered by Varun on March 6, 2009, in Pilibhit reveals that apart from trying to create a divide between Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims to secure votes in the election, he made personal attacks not only against me but also against the Sikh religion."
Talking to IANS on a visit to Lucknow on Wednesday, Singh said, "What was even more shocking was that in his enthusiasm to exploit the communal sentiment, Varun seemed to have forgotten that his own mother is a Sikh."
Initially, Singh sought the intervention of the Election Commission and also provided the state chief electoral officer with the necessary evidence. "However, since the Election Commission had failed to initiate any action in the matter, I moved a complaint to the government," Singh said.
"As soon as I procured a copy of the microchip with the recordings of the anti-Sikh speech, I made a complaint to the Election Commission of India. I also provided the microchip and the mobile phone with the audio recordings in April 2009, but after the commission didn't take any action, I decided to draw the attention of the state government," he added.
While admitting he had received such a complaint from V M Singh, state principal home secretary Fateh Bahadur said, "We will look into the complaint and get everything examined before initiating any action."
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