IANS/Ranchi
A court yesterday issued an arrest warrant against a Bharatiya Janata Party leader in Bihar for allegedly making a provocative speech.
"An arrest warrant has been issued against Giriraj Singh by the court of Sub Divisional Judicial Magistrate Amit Shekhar,” in Bokaro, a lawyer said.
Police had filed a petition in the court on Tuesday seeking Singh’s arrest.
Two cases have been lodged against the BJP leader in Jharkhand. The first was lodged in Bokaro and the second in Deoghar district.
On Saturday Singh had said that "those opposing (BJP leader) Narendra Modi as the prime minister of India are supporters of Pakistan."
A couple of days later, television channels showed a video in which Praveen Togadia, a firebrand member of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a sister organisation of the BJP, was seen offering advice on how to prevent Muslims from buying property in Hindus-dominated areas.
Modi on Tuesday distanced himself from Singh and Togadia, saying his colleagues must focus on development issues in the election campaign, rather than rail against minority Muslims and liberals.
“Petty statements by those claiming to be BJP’s well-wishers are deviating the campaign from the issues of development & good governance,” Modi, the biggest campaigner for the party, said in a Twitter post.
“I disapprove any such irresponsible statement & appeal to those making them to kindly refrain from doing so.”
In a related development, senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley launched a veiled attack on Aam Aadmi party AAP leader Shazia Ilmi for her reported communal speech, saying such comments reflect the party's mindset.
"One of their lady representatives has been now seen telling supporters that her community must cease to be secular and adopt a more communal approach.
"Such comments by a political party or its representatives cannot even be privately made. These comments reflect their mindset. They demonstrate that the alleged 'idealism' of AAP was put on one," Jaitley wrote on his blog.
"The mask has slipped, even if accidentally," he added, without naming Ilmi.
Jaitley's comments follow media reports about Ilmi, the AAP candidate from Ghaziabad Lok Sabha seat, saying in a video that instead of being secular, Muslims should be communal.
Jaitley said that if the Delhi assembly election was the "high point" for the AAP, the Lok Sabha election would spell "doom" for it.
"AAP was a governance disaster in Delhi. It represented political adventurism. Its ideology was populist and only vote oriented," he said and added that the party demonstrated extreme opportunism.
Also yesterday, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam told the Election Commission and police that people were being given Rs3,000 or other gifts by members of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam to solicit vote for the ruling party in Tamil Nadu.
The DMK also alleged that police acted in concert with the AIADMK while election returning officers took no action to stop the mass bribery.
The complaint by DMK treasurer M K Stalin also charges senior police officers with preventing their juniors from taking action against erring AIADMK members despite complaints.
"The entire state machinery is abused and misused for ensuring distribution of money by the AIADMK cadres and orders are being issued from the persons at the helm of the administration to facilitate the same," Stalin said in his police complaint.
According to him, the money was being transported by police and other officials in their vehicles.