Cases foisted, I did not violate any party rules: Raja Singh

HYDERABAD: Goshamahal legislator T. Raja Singh, who was suspended from the BJP following his arrest under the PD Act in August for alleged remarks that hurt religious sentiments, on Monday said that he did not violate any BJP rules and that cases against him were foisted by the police under the direction of the TRS government.

In a four-page response to the BJP’s central disciplinary committee, which sought an explanation from him soon after his arrest, referring to the video he posted following comedian Munawar Faruqui’s show in the city, he said “I did not use abusive language. I didn’t mention the name of any individual in my video. I deliberately did not hurt sentiments of any religion.”

In the letter sent from Cherlapalli prison where he is currently lodged, Singh said: “I only imitated Faruqui, that too, based on the information provided on Google.”

He said that he had been “relentlessly fighting against the atrocities of the MIM and its partner TRS for the last eight years. As many as 100 cases were filed against me to silence me... Whenever I criticise MIM for its communal politics, they are creating an impression that I have been criticising Muslims. Since the word ‘Muslim’ is part of Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM), they are alleging that I am criticizing the entire community.”

Declaring that he never criticised the Muslim community or ever made any personal comments on them, Raja Singh said he had been “exposing MIM atrocities and its staunch supporter, TRS.”

Referring to the Faruqui episode, Singh said he registered his protest when the comedian, facing allegations of “provoking communal tensions by making vulgar comments against Hindu deities,” he appealed to the TRS government not to allow the show, but instead the TRS government provided security to the comedian with thousands of policemen, and that this act was aimed at pleasing MIM party.

 “Soon after the show, I made a video to make people understand how Faruqui does his show. I neither belittled any religion nor did I criticize any God,” Singh said.

He urged the party to consider his response to the show cause notice he received saying that as a BJP karyakarta, he will “not do anything that brings disrespect to the party.”