Won’t give in to BJP’s threats: Barad

Rajkot: Disqualified Talala Congress MLA Bhaga Barad on Sunday accused the BJP government of making deliberate and concerted efforts to send him to jail, but said that he was not going to be intimidated by the saffron party's cynical tactics.
Barad, who was sentenced to two years and nine months in an illegal mining case of 1995 on March 1, was addressing a gathering of his Ahir community members in Veraval.

"This government is working with a political vendetta and trying all possible ways to finish my political career. They are appointing special public prosecutors from Rajkot and Junagadh to weaken by appeal in the higher court to see that I am sent to jail," Barad told the gathering.

He accused the government of treating him as a "terrorist" and 'anti-national' and a 'murderer.:

In an indirect attack on Congress MLAs joining BJP, Barad said, "BJP believes that those coming into its party fold are clean persons and those who refuse should be finished."

Warning that he would not yield to any intimidating tactics of BJP, Barad said, "Politics is in my blood. I am not hungry for power, but only for love of my people. If the community is by my side, I am not scared of anything."

Protesting against his suspension from the state assembly, around 1,000-odd members of Ahir community passed a resolution in a meeting that they would vote against BJP in the Lok Sabha election if the suspension was not revoked.

Barad was suspended by Gujarat assembly speaker Rajendra Trivedi after a Sutrapada taluka court convicted him on March 1.

“The Gujarat assembly speaker doesn’t have powers to suspend me. I will take the fight against the suspension order to the Supreme Court,” said Barad.