Why BJP looks the other way every time its Hyderabad MLA stirs a controversy
Hyderabad's BJP MLA T Raja Singh “runs his own parallel shop”. That’s what a Telangana BJP leader told me when I asked him what the state unit of the party thought about his recent controversial statement on Padmavati. ''The BJP can neither associate with what he says, nor can it disassociate from him since he is our MLA,” he said.
Over the last few days, Raja Singh has been hogging airtime on different TV news channels. With his matchbox-in-hand swagger, Raja Singh is made for television as he turns on the decibel level significantly as long as he is there. His stature as a BJP lawmaker makes him an “unofficial” party spokesperson on the television, enough to rile the Left liberals. On the other hand, the show anchors get an opportunity to shout back, rubbishing his provocative comments.
“Don't mess around with history,” he raved and ranted at a show this week on Padmavati. “If law and order machinery does not support us, are we supposed to simply keep quiet?''
Singh hit the headlines when he warned that if Padmavati was screened in Telangana, he would set fire to the theatres. He subsequently tried to behave like a responsible MLA, writing to the Telangana chief minister on Tuesday to ban the movie in the state to avoid law and order issues.
“The movie on Rani Padmavati has hurt the sentiments of the Hindus because of its manipulations. So it should be banned in Telangana till changes are made,'' he said. Of course, with nothing beyond a trailer and a song to go by, there is no clarity on what changes he really wants. His weak knowledge about Rani Padmini does not help his cause either.
It is clear that Padmavati is not the concern for Raja Singh. For the MLA, the intention is to use Padmavati to keep himself in the headlines and project himself as a spokesperson of the Hindus.
This is also not the first time that Singh's inflammatory brand of politics has targeted a movie. He vowed to create problems with Karan Johar's Ae Dil Hai Mushkil in October last year because it starred Pakistan actor Fawad Khan. Singh knows the bigger the film, the better the chances of staying in limelight.
“It has been brought to the ‘kind notice’ of theatre owners in Hyderabad that Ae Dil Hai Mushkil stars a Pakistan actor as a ‘side hero’ and therefore ‘being an Indian’ they should not screen the film.'' This was the polite side of Raja Singh in his letter he sent to exhibitors in the city. But in a video that he had posted on his Facebook page, he threatened to “burn down any theatre'' in his Goshamahal constituency in Hyderabad that dared to screen the Karan Johar flick.
But Raja Singh isn't just a "film critic” of the violent kind. His divisive rhetoric targets both Muslims and Dalits. On Rama Navami, the 39-year-old legislator threatened to behead those who oppose the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya.
“All those who warned of dire consequences if Ram Mandir was built, we were just waiting for you to say this so that we can behead you. So far, you had a government of the Mullahs there, now you have your father's sarkaar there,'' he said.
When the National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested seven men from the Old City area of Hyderabad in June last year on charges of associations with an ISIS terror module, Raja Singh accused political parties like the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) of converting the area beyond the Charminar into a “mini-Pakistan".
In August last year, Raja Singh praised those who had beaten up the Dalits in Una in Gujarat. In a video on Facebook, he called those Dalits “galeez” (filthy) who indulge in cow slaughter. Justifying the assault, Raja Singh said, “Those Dalits were taking the cow, the cow meat. It was a very good thing that they were beaten up.”
Does the BJP do anything to rein in these serial offenders, like Raja Singh? Party leaders privately admit that Raja Singh does not care about the state leadership's approval. Only on one occasion, action was taken against him when the legislator was kept at a distance during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Hyderabad, soon after Singh's anti-Dalit comments.
The BJP also knows Singh's popularity can be tapped when necessary. The party that has five MLAs in Telangana reaps the benefit of the Hindu consolidation that Raja Singh, in his capacity as the head of the Gau Raksha Dal, is able to mobilise. Singh is cultivating his own hardliner image, being inspired by Yogi Adityanath.
Raja Singh has been part of the RSS and spent his initial political years in Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party. Most believe that he nurses ambitions of taking on Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi (AIMIM) in an electoral contest. Given that the number of those who dish out provocative statements is quite high in the India, Raja Singh would obviously think he is on the right path.