Reining in hate-mongers

Exterminate all the brutes!’ This chilling line from Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness presaged the genocides that bloodied the 20th century. An echo of this incendiary exhortation was heard in Delhi’s Rithala Assembly constituency on Monday during a rally addressed by BJP MP and Union Minister Anurag Thakur. Playing the rabble-rouser, he chanted, ‘Desh ke gaddaron ko…’ The frenzied crowd promptly completed the slogan: ‘…goli maro saalon ko’ (shoot the traitors).

Acting swiftly, the Election Commission (EC) has ordered that Thakur and fellow MP Parvesh Verma be removed from the list of BJP’s star campaigners. Verma had said at an election rally in the Capital that the Shaheen Bagh protest site would be cleared in an hour on February 11 if the BJP comes to power. He warned the people — without bothering to substantiate his assertion — that anti-CAA protesters in lakhs would enter their homes to rape and kill women. Last week, the EC had banned party candidate Kapil Mishra from campaigning for 48 hours for his provocative ‘India vs Pakistan’ tweet. The Delhi Minorities Commission has also stepped in, lodging a complaint with the chief electoral officer against Thakur, Verma and other politicians for spewing venom.

The foot-in-the-mouth disease is spreading fast among BJP leaders in the run-up to the high-stakes Delhi polls, but the top brass seems reluctant to restrain the troublemakers. The laxity in punishing hate-mongers is exemplified by the curious case of Bhopal MP Pragya Thakur. All that she got for calling Gandhi’s killer Godse a patriot was a reprimand. The party decided against her expulsion, which would have been an apt step to convey the message that such leaders won’t be tolerated. Pragya was even inducted into the parliamentary consultative committee on defence, though the appointment was withdrawn a week later after an uproar. The negativity unleashed by these loose cannons is a far cry from the ‘positive secularism’ promised by the BJP. With its credibility at stake, the ruling party must bite the bullet.