T Raja Singh, a state lawmaker from the governing BJP party of India, was detained by police in the city of Hyderabad on Tuesday for “promoting enmity in the name of religion” by posting a video in which he referred to the child bride taken by Islam’s Muhammad.
Similar comments by a BJP spokeswoman in May sparked riots, international controversy, and the end of several careers.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP makes frequent appeals to Hindu nationalism but has grown very sensitive about offending Muslim sensibilities after spokeswoman Nupur Sharma criticized Islamic beliefs during a heated exchange over a religious controversy on a May 27 talk show.
“Should I start mocking claims of flying horses or the flat-earth theory as mentioned in your Quran? You are marrying a 6-year-old girl and having sex with her when she turned 9. Who did it? Prophet Muhammad. Should I start saying all these things that are mentioned in your scriptures,” Sharma said after other guests on the show mocked Hindu beliefs.
Sharma was suspended from BJP two weeks later after some influential Muslims drew attention to her remarks, protests and riots broke out across India, and Muslim leaders from around the world denounced her. The Biden State Department condemned the “offensive comments” made by Sharma and other BJP officials and applauded Modi’s party for doing likewise.
India’s Supreme Court in July ordered Sharma to apologize for her remarks, saying she “has a loose tongue and has made all kinds of irresponsible statements on TV and set the entire country on fire,” but also granted her protection from arrest, in part because she reported constant threats against her life.
T Raja Singh enjoyed no such protection after sharing a YouTube video on Monday night in which he repeated Sharma’s critique of Muhammad.
Singh complained that Hindu beliefs can be mocked without consequence while Muslim blasphemy codes are enforced by riots and intimidated public officials, highlighting a standup comedian named Munawar Faruqui whose act includes tawdry jokes about the marital relations of Hindu gods.
Members of a rickshaw drivers union burn a representation of an Indian national flag and pictures of Nupur Sharma, a spokesperson of the governing Hindu nationalist party, during a demonstration to condemn the derogatory references to Islam and the Prophet Muhammad made recently by Sharma, in Karachi, Pakistan, Tuesday, June 6, 2022. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
Hindu protesters were recently able to cancel some of Faruqui’s appearances by complaining that his content insulted their religious beliefs, while other Faruqui shows proceeded under heavy police protection.
“This is the first video where I have spoken like this. What is the reason? Because one person hurled abuses at my Lord Ram and Sita Mata. He did comedy on my gods and today, without any other option left, I am doing comedy on your mother. This is my anguish,” Singh said in his Monday night video to explain why he was repeating Sharma’s allegation of pedophilia against Muhammad.
Protests immediately broke out at police stations across Hyderabad, while opposition politicians demanded Singh’s arrest. The police complied within a matter of hours.
“We have received several complaints. MLA [Member of the Legislative Assembly] Raja Singh has been apprehended. We will update you about the arrest as well as the sections soon,” senior police official Joel Davis announced on Monday night.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 2, 2022 in New Delhi, India. (Sonu Mehta/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)
On Tuesday, Davis followed up by saying Singh would be arrested for “the recent video that he posted.”
“He has been charged with promoting enmity in the name of religion,” he said.
“Has it become their official policy that they aren’t satisfied with Nupur Sharma and they are making other MLAs say things? People are angry. People have tears in their eyes. Why are they saying things like this about Prophet Muhammad? Our demand is that the BJP should stop doing all this. People can see how much you hate the Prophet,” said Asaduddin Owaisi, head of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) party, which is based in Hyderabad.
“BJP does not want to see peace in Hyderabad. They hate Prophet Muhammad and Muslims. They want to destroy the social fabric of India,” Owaisi charged at a press conference on Tuesday.
BJP suspended Singh on Tuesday after he vowed to restore his video, which the authorities pulled down from YouTube, and follow up with a Part Two.
“They removed my video from YouTube. I don’t know what the police are going to do. Once I am released, the second part will certainly be uploaded. I am doing it for Dharma. I am ready to die for Dharma,” Singh said. “Dharma” is another name for the Hindu religion.
“You have expressed views contrary to the party’s position on various matters, which is a clear violation of the constitution of the Bharatiya Janata Party. I have been directed to convey to you that pending further inquiry, you are suspended from the party,” BJP official Om Pathak said in a notice issued to Singh, who was given ten days to appeal his suspension.
BJP is so nervous about tensions with India’s Muslims that the party conspicuously refrained from commenting on the knife attack against Indian-born author Salman Rushdie by a Muslim extremist in New York on August 12.
BJP essentially decided the Rushdie stabbing was none of its business because the author is a liberal/atheist born into a Muslim family who was assaulted by a Muslim, and since American law enforcement is extremely reluctant to examine the religious dimensions of the attack, there was no reason for the Hindu political party to weigh in. As an editorial at OpIndia on Monday sarcastically explained:
We have been told by several leading liberal newspapers like NDTV, NYT, WaPo, etc. (that usually speak the truth in such matters), by the FBI itself and the woke uber-liberal Biden administration that the “motives of the attacker are unknown”. Which means it could be anything. Perhaps a pickpocket attempt that went bad or some personal reasons. Maybe Salman was trying to seduce the attacker’s girlfriend. There are a million possibilities. Giving it a communal color is abominable.
FBI experts must have racked their brains trying to solve this motive puzzle. Pity them. The rooms in Hoover Building are so big, something that is 7 feet tall, dark grey and weighs 6 tons can sit in one corner unnoticed. They could not find it. That is why they wisely kept away from declaring the motives. What can BJP know that FBI doesn’t?
“The Nupur Sharma controversy has finally subsided, and the party does not want to get into any new controversy. When the external affairs minister was asked about the issue, he did comment. So, it is not that the BJP is shying away. But we don’t see any need to comment on this matter at this particular time,” a senior BJP member candidly explained to India’s The Print last week.