There is trouble brewing in the BJP with members aghast over the action against Nupur Sharma because they were merely “acting” as asked.
Reactions from supporters of the BJP, and rumors go that 600 BJP members may resign because they are upset over the action against Nupur Sharma, Nupur Sharma, Naveen Jindal, and others booked for allegedly spreading hate. However, the BJP members were executing their sporadic hate speeches as directed by those in higher authority, triggering a sense of injustice inflicted on them by the party leaders.
The two office-bearers of the party were doing the bidding of the party and they should not have been punished for just crossing the limit in the heat of the moment,” said a senior functionary of Delhi BJP requesting not to be quoted.
In fact, most of the party members in Delhi are extremely ‘upset’ over action against Nupur Sharma and Naveen Jindal over Prophet remarks row and openly expressed themselves cryptically on social media.
A district Delhi BJP president said, “We have been sentimentally following BJP’s policy and defending its Hindutva plank for years. The question is what is our stake and what happens if we land in some problem while doing it,”
A Delhi BJP Yuva Morcha office-bearer Abhishek Dubey tweeted that many insulted Lord Shiva but no action was taken against them.
“Although I do not support humiliating any religion because everyone follow their faith. Many big responsible people have also humiliated Lord Shiva but were any action taken on anyone ??” Dubey asked.
Several other Delhi BJP leaders including a few office bearers of the state unit said rather than “shock”, of Sharma and Jindal was a “big disappointment” for ordinary workers who followed the party’s policies and programs without ever thinking about their own interests.
The opposition parties said the country will not apologize for the mistakes of the BJP.
“Instead of doing a drama of action against anti-social elements in the party who have defamed India at the international level, it should immediately arrest them,” Congress said.
“With their hate-mongering propagandist politics, BJP hasn’t just shamed the country but put the nation which once stood for peace and harmony on trial for the whole world to see,” it alleged.
Party leader P Chidambaram said it was not domestic criticism but an international backlash that had pushed the BJP to take action against its functionaries.
National Conference vice president Omar Abdullah said the statements made to pander to a local audience have damaged Indian interests in a part of the world that is crucial to the country.
The All-India Muslim Personal Law Board said the BJP’s action against the two functionaries was a “good thing” but not enough and demanded stringent legal action against them.
The Ittehad-e-Millat Council (IMC) said it will hold protests across the country on June 10 if no legal action was initiated against Sharma.
The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), however, said there should be “a strict law” against blasphemy in India and supported a Twitter trend calling for a boycott of Qatar Airways.
The RSS affiliate questioned the Qatar government’s stand on the row and said Hindu beliefs were insulted when Shivaling, which was claimed to have been found at the Gyanvapi mosque premises in Varanasi, was called a fountain by a section of people.
There is no smoke without a fire and this is all a spring reaction to all that has been transpiring for years.