Motormouths did BJP in, says HM
In a candid admission, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday said his assessment of Delhi Assembly elections went wrong and maintained that the statements like “goli maro” and “Indo-Pak match” (in reference to Shaheen Bagh) by party’s motormouths hurt the BJP’s prospects in the polls.
While maintaining that such remarks should not have been made, he said the Delhi poll results were not a mandate on the CAA and the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
While Union Minister Anurag Thakur and West Delhi MP Parvesh Verma hogged the limelight for their hate speeches, Shah himself had asked voters to press EVM button in favour of the BJP with a force that Shaheen Bagh felt the current.
“No one has said bahu betiyon ka balatkar karenge (wives and daughters will be raped). But the rest — goli maro, Indo-Pak match — those also should not have made. The party distanced itself immediately,” Shah said, speaking for the first time since the Delhi election results were announced on Tuesday.
“All kinds of workers are there who may say something but the public knows how the party is. But this is not the outlook of the party. May be we have also suffered because of this. We don’t know exactly as voters could not write why they didn’t vote. But maybe this could have been a reason,” he said.
Shah, however, said the BJP does not fight elections just for victory or defeat but believes in expanding its ideology through polls.
Replying to a question, Shah admitted that the BJP may have suffered because of the statements made by some party leaders during the Delhi poll campaign.
The Home Minister said his assessment of Delhi elections went wrong but asserted that the result of the polls was not a mandate on the CAA and the NRC.
Shah said anyone who wants to discuss issues related to CAA with him can seek time from his office. “(We) will give time within three days,” he added. He blamed the Congress for the Partition on basis of religion.
While Shah has now come out against the hate speeches delivered by his party’s leaders throughout the poll campaign, both Anurag Thakur and Parvesh Verma repeatedly justified their polarising speeches, and no one from the BJP asked them even to apply restraint. Incidentally, the BJP lost the seats where Thakur and Verma made the controversial remarks for the first time.