By Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI – In an outrageous act, the Bharatiya Janata Party MP from South Delhi, Ramesh Bidhuri, who gained notoriety for his anti-Muslim slurs in the Parliament recently, is whipping up communal frenzy through his rhetoric in Rajasthan’s Tonk district ahead of the State Assembly election scheduled for November 25. The BJP has appointed Bidhuri its election in-charge for Tonk in what is being seen as a reward for his abusive remarks.
Bidhuri had made some derogatory comments against Bahujan Samaj Party MP Danish Ali, based on his Muslim identity, during a debate on India’s Chandrayaan-3 Mission in a special session of the Parliament last month. The BJP issued a show cause notice to Bidhuri after the incident, while Ali and several other Opposition MPs lodged a complaint against him with the Lok Sabha Privileges Committee.
Bidhuri is yet to appear before the Privileges Committee for giving his version of the incident and has reportedly cited his repeated visits outside New Delhi as the reason for his inability to appear before the panel. He has been regularly visiting Tonk where he has been assigned the poll-related responsibilities by the BJP, after sparking the controversy in the national capital.
Bidhuri has raked up the issue of the Rajasthan government’s alleged appeasement policy in the Tonk district while trying to generate a rift between the sizeable Muslim population and different castes of the Hindu community. The Gujjar caste, to which Bidhuri belongs, has a significant strength in Tonk, and it overwhelmingly supports Congress leader Sachin Pilot, also a Gujjar, who won the Assembly seat in the 2018 election.
Of the four Assembly seats in Tonk district, the BJP at present occupies only one – Malpura. The three other constituencies are Tonk, Deoli-Uniara and Niwai, which are represented by the Congress MLAs. Malpura, represented by BJP MLA Kanhaiya Lal, has witnessed riots in the past, while Tonk city has been free of communal tension during the Congress rule.
During his visits to look after the preparations for the Assembly election, Bidhuri has addressed a series of meetings of the party workers, including a workshop of the election management committee, where he handed over different responsibilities to the party’s office-bearers in Tonk. He was accompanied by Tonk-Sawai Madhopur MP Sukhbir Singh Jaunpuria in his introductory visits to several blocks in the district.
Addressing a meeting of BJP workers in Tonk, Bidhuri accused the Congress government in the state of indulging in appeasement politics, while affirming that all sections of the population should be treated with equality. “The politics of appeasement is in full swing here. The Congress is supporting a particular community to obtain its votes in bulk,” he said.
While asking the party workers to generate awareness among the voters to get rid of appeasement, Bidhuri said a double-engine government would take Rajasthan to the path of progress. He said the Congress MLAs had looted the state during the last five years because Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot was busy saving his chair. He also alleged that the Congress government had no control over law and order and the state was immersed in corruption.
The ongoing Hamas-Israel conflict in the Middle East has also come as an opportunity for Bidhuri to target Congress and Muslims. After interacting with the BJP workers at another organizational meeting, Bidhuri said while talking to journalists that the Congress had revealed its real face of appeasement through its resolution on the attack on Israel, in which it had supported terrorists.
“The Congress Working Committee (CWC) has supported Hamas in its resolution to please a particular community. The world is shocked by the terrorism of Hamas. Their terrorists raped women and kidnapped innocent Israeli citizens,” Bidhuri said. The BJP MP said such a resolution would encourage what he described as anti-national elements and traitors living in the country.
However, the CWC resolution on the Hamas-Israel conflict, adopted in New Delhi on October 9, had not named Hamas or extended support to the Palestinian group. While expressing dismay and anguish in reference to the conflict, the party reiterated its long-standing support for the rights of the Palestinian people and called for immediate ceasefire and negotiations on all outstanding matters, including the issues which have led to the present conflict.
Bidhuri affirmed that the voters in Tonk should understand the issue from the right perspective, as even the students in institutions like Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia Islamia had raised slogans in support of Hamas. “Congress is in fact encouraging them and destroying our Sanatan Dharma’s culture of peace and non-violence. It deserves to be shown the door in the upcoming election,” he said.
Muslims comprise 10.77% of the population of Tonk district, which is an erstwhile princely state ruled by Nawabs, while the community’s population is 47.18% in Tonk city. Among the 2.45 lakh voters in Tonk constituency, about 62,000 are Muslims. The number of Gujjars is 35,000, Scheduled Castes 45,000, Brahmins 15,000, Jats 12,000, Malis 16,000 and Rajputs 5,000.
The BJP’s attempt at consolidation of Hindu voters may not succeed at the Tonk seat, where Congress is in a strong position and Bidhuri will find it difficult to counter former Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot despite his Gujjar identity. The Muslim voters and others with a secular outlook in Tonk district have refused to get provoked by Bidhuri’s rantings while affirming that they form part of the BJP’s strategy to brazenly project itself as anti-Muslim in order to polarize the voters.
Saud Saidi, a prominent Congress leader in Tonk and a close confidante of Sachin Pilot, told India Tomorrow that Bidhuri’s tirades would harm the BJP itself, as Muslims and other Congress supporters would get mobilized and cast ballots in large numbers. Saidi, a member of Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee, had unsuccessfully contested the 2013 Assembly election as an independent candidate from Tonk.
Saidi also said that Bidhuri was an outsider, who would fail to make any impact on the Gujjar voters in the district. Other Muslim leaders in the district, including Tonk Municipal Council’s Chairman Ali Ahmed and social activist Salimuddin Khan, said the Muslim community would not allow the atmosphere to be vitiated by the BJP in the region, which was known for its composite culture and communal harmony.
