BJP stands by Varun Gandhi

NEW DELHI: India’s main Hindu nationalist party refused on Monday to drop the great-grandson of India’s first prime minister as a candidate after the Election Commission found him guilty of hate speech and inciting violence against Muslims. The furor surrounds Varun Gandhi, 29, who was filmed comparing a rival Muslim politician to Osama Bin Laden and threatening to cut the throats of Muslims during two political rallies earlier this month. Gandhi is the descendant of former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, a founder of India’s secular democracy and the dynasty of politicians who have dominated the governing Congress party. However, Gandhi is a member of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. Late on Sunday, the commission found him guilty of inciting hatred and urged the BJP to drop him, saying it would be زperceived as endorsing his unpardonable acts of inciting violence and creating feelings of enmity and hatred between different classes of citizens of India.’’ However, on Monday the BJP refused. “The commission has no authority to give such a direction to a political party,’’ Balbir Punj, a BJP leader, told reporters after consulting top party leaders. He did not address the content of Gandhi’s speeches. But last week, the party sought to disassociate itself from the comments. The statement from the Election Commission said that Gandhi’s “speeches contained highly derogatory references and seriously provocative language of a wholly unacceptable nature.’’The commission said it lacked the authority to bar Gandhi from the elections unless he had been convicted by a court. The commission rejected Gandhi’s claims the footage of his speeches had been doctored, saying it “is fully convinced and satisfied that the CD has not been tampered with, doctored or morphed.’’ The Election Commission has already directed officials in Uttar Pradesh state, where Gandhi is running, to file a criminal case against him for “promoting hatred,’’ said Rajesh Malhotra, a commission spokesman. If convicted, Gandhi could be disqualified from running for office and imprisoned for up to five years. The footage - recorded at rallies on March 6 and 8 in Pilibhit, a constituency once held by Gandhi’s mother, Maneka Gandhi, a daughter-in-law of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi - was broadcast repeatedly on Indian televisions channels last week. “All the Hindus stay on this side and send the others to Pakistan,’’ he said in the video. “This is the Lotus hand”, he said, referring to the symbol of the BJP. “It will cut their throats after elections.’’ Muslims make up some 14 per cent of India’s 1.1 billion citizens. Muslims and the majority Hindus in India have a long history of tension and mistrust that sometimes erupts into violence. Meanwhile, the UN human rights chief urged India on Monday to counter suspicion against its Muslim minority following the Mumbai attacks and warned the country’s strict anti-terror measures threatened human rights. India is still on edge after gunmen killed 166 people in a three-day rampage on the financial hub last November. Hundreds of Muslims were detained and questioned over the attacks, angering rights activists who said innocent people were caught up in the backlash. “The horrific terrorist attack in Mumbai has also polarized society and risks stoking suspicions against the Muslim community,” said UN Human Rights chief Navanethem Pillay. “Both internal and external terrorist threats have led to counter-terrorist measures that put human rights at risk,” Pillay said in New Delhi during her India visit. Religious and caste-based prejudices remain entrenched in Indian society, she said. Pillay also questioned India’s human rights record in the troubled state of Jammu and Kashmir, where security forces have been battling a 20-year separatist insurgency that has killed more than 47,000 people. Pillay said security forces have excessive emergency powers under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, a law which lets them fire at civilians breaking laws in “disturbed” areas and make arrests without a warrant. “In the past two decades, hundreds of cases of disappearances have been reported in Kashmir,” Pillay said. “These cases must be properly investigated in order to bring a sense of closure to the families who far too long have been awaiting news, any news.”