New Delhi: A local court in Punjab’s Sangrur has summoned Congress party president Mallikarjun Kharge in a Rs 100-crore defamation case that has been filed against him over comments his party made in their Karnataka election manifesto.
The complaint was filed by 51-year-old Hitesh Bhardwaj, who is national president of a Bajrang Dal unit named ‘Hindu Suraksha Parishad’. He alleged that Kharge made defamatory remarks against the Bajrang Dal in the manifesto by “comparing it to outlawed terrorist organisations like Popular Front of India [PFI],”the Indian Express reported.
Described as a “brigade-like body” by political scientist Christophe Jaffrelot, the Bajrang Dal is a Hindu nationalist organisation that’s part of the Sangh parivar umbrella of organisations to which the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is affiliated.
The PFI was banned by the Union government in September last year, citing links with terrorist outfits and ambitions to “radicalise a particular section of the society working towards undermining the concept of democracy,” BBC reported.
In the “Law and Justice” section of its manifesto, the Congress party said it will take action against organisations that spread hatred among communities on the basis of caste or religion.
“We believe that the law and the constitution are sacrosanct and cannot be violated by individuals and organisations like the Bajrang Dal, the PFI or others promoting enmity or hatred, whether among majority or minority communities. We will take decisive action as per law, including imposing a ban on any such organisations,” it said.
Bhardwaj’s lawyer said he was seeking compensation from Kharge because of the injury this comparison inflicted on members of the Bajrang Dal.
“The comparison of the Bajrang Dal with the PFI has impaired the name and honour of the members of the Bajrang Dal and the Hindu Suraksha Parishad, who number in the crores (sic), and also defames the followers of Lord Hanuman, who is reverentially worshipped by crores of Hindu practitioners and others,” he was reported as saying by the Press Trust of India.
The Bajrang Dal’s Karnataka cadre was in the news recently after they crashed a women’s party in the state’s Shivamogga city, in a moral policing case. Its district convenor, Rajesh Gowda, said that they “will not allow such events in Shivamogga because [they] do not want our city to become another Manipal,” the Hindu reported.
The Congress party under Kharge’s national leadership won the assembly elections in Karnataka earlier this month, winning a total of 135 seats in the state’s legislature. The BJP came in second place with 66 seats.