Aam Aadmi Party's Gujarat president Gopal Italia has stirred up a political storm in the poll-bound state after some old videos of him surfaced and went viral on social platforms. In one video, he can be heard addressing Prime Minister Narendra Modi as neech (loosely translated as inferior human) while in another he is saying that women are exploited in villages.
On Thursday, following a notice from the National Commission for Women (NCW), he appeared before the panel and was later detained by Delhi Police for nearly three hours.
Italia came out strongly against NCW chairperson Rekha Sharma, saying he was threatened and treated indecently by her. He said the NCW chief didn't even ask him anything about the video clips.
Interestingly, the allegations against the AAP leader emerged two days after a party's minister in Delhi, Rajendra Pal Gautam, was forced to resign after he allegedly attended a religious conversion event.
In Gujarat, Italia said the BJP is resorting to such tactics as it is scared of AAP's growing popularity.
The AAP claimed Italia was released by Delhi Police as the BJP fears Patidar anger. Italia, a Patidar from Timba village of Bhavnagar in Saurashtra, has in the past worked as a constable and a clerk in Ahmedabad Collectorate. In 2017, he was suspended from the service after he allegedly hurled a shoe at then Minister of State for Home Pradipsinh Jadeja.
On Thursday, when Italia was appearing before the women's panel in Delhi, another video surfaced in which he could again be seen referring to Modi as neech and even dragging his mother Hiraba saying that she also does not stop drama.
Coincidentally, the clips emerged when Modi was touring the state. The prime minister made an indirect reference to Italia's remarks when he said that the Congress has outsourced the contract of abusing him to others.
So, is the BJP scared of the Aam Admi Party? Ever since the AAP and its chief Arvind Kejriwal started an aggressive campaigning in Gujarat, promising free 300 units of electricity among other things, the BJP has been on a watchful mode.
In the last assembly election, the neech comment made by Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar had misfired for the party when Modi in the last leg of his election campaign raked this up.
Though the BJP leaders refuse to admit, the fact is that the AAP's attempts to spread its wings in Gujarat has made the saffron camp sit up.
Many a time, Gujarat BJP president C.R. Patil has been heard asking partymen not to be complacent. In a recent clip that went viral, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya is heard saying why the AAP's social media team is more stronger than that of the BJP.
The BJP has already stepped up its attack on the AAP leaders in the cyber space. The AAP, however, has maintained that the BJP is resorting to such tactics as it has no answers for the questions being raised by the masses about governance.
