BJP’s national secretary H. Raja, known for controversial remarks, apologised unconditionally before the Madras High Court. This comes a month after a video of him abusing the police and judiciary went viral. The court closed the contempt case against him. With Raja’s apologies, his previous claim that the video was doctored, stands false.
BJP’s national secretary on Monday appeared before a bench of Justices C.T. Selvam and Nirmal Kumar to apologise. The bench had taken suo moto cognisance of the issue after Raja abused the judiciary in September during a Ganesh Chaturthi rally at Sivaganga, his home district. Raja told teh court that he had 'turned emotional', following which the two-judge bench allowed him to walk free without facing any legal consequence.
In the video, an angry Raja was seen yelling at two men in police uniform. The two men were trying to pacify and console him. The police was reportedly attempting to prevent a Ganesh Chaturthi procession saying it cannot cross through a sensitive area, where the court had already banned processions.
The BJP leader in the video was seen irked and immediately begins shouting at the policemen, abusing both the policemen and the Madras High Court. In the two-minute video that went viral, Raja was seen accusing the police of being corrupt and receiving bribes from Christian missionaries. He also told the police that they should feel ashamed in wearing khaki (police uniform) and for working under DGP T.K. Rajendran whose house was raided by the CBI in a case related to gutkha scam. When the policemen said that they were just following court orders, he went ahead to abuse the Madras High court with obscene words. He also demanded that a stage be built up for him to talk. The video went viral and sparked controversies and outrage among people across the state while a FIR was filed against him for abusing the court and police at the Thirumayam Police station in Pudukottai district.
Days after the video went viral and the FIR was filed, the bench comprising of C.T. Selvam and Nirmal Kumar called Raja’s remarks disgraceful and said: “Any attempt at creating a dent in this most revered pillar of democratic system—judiciary—leads to promotion of fascism, naxalism.”
It may be recalled that Raja’s remarks have always sparked controversies. In fact, he once tweeted “illegitimate child” aimed at DMK MP Kanimozhi. On a later occasion, he said it was wrongly done by his admin who has been removed from the post. His colleague S.V. Sekar, too, shared a Facebook post which said women sleep around with their bosses to reach high in their profession and later apologised and deleted it, saying he did not do it intentionally.
