‘Varun Gandhi called Sikhs Khalistanis during polls'

While Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member of Parliament Varun Gandhi’s hate speeches against Muslims are a matter of record, there are fresh allegations that he also spoke against Sikhs during the Lok Sabha election campaign.

The Congress candidate who lost against Gandhi in the Pilibhit Lok Sabha election in a complaint to the Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday said he had referred to Sikhs as ‘Khalistanis’, besides calling Muslims ‘Pakistanis’.

Varun’s mother Maneka, a former minister and BJP MP too, is a Sikh. The 35-page complaint was given to state principal home secretary Fateh Bahadur on Tuesday. It cites a speech Varun delivered at Mathia temple in Deshnagar, Pilibhit, on March 6.

While his hate speeches on March 7 and 8 against Muslims are under police investigation, his alleged anti-Sikh utterances went unreported until the complainant, VM Singh, a former MLA and a farmer leader, found the transcripts recently.

“The applicant seeks permission from the state to initiate criminal proceedings against Mr Varun Feroze Gandhi for indulging and misusing religion to garner votes and also spitting venom and creating a divide between communities to reap electoral benefits,” Singh said in the complaint.