Despite receiving a show-cause notice from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), party MLA Sangram Jagtap has once again targeted the Muslim community in Ahilyanagar, alleging that “jihadis” were responsible for cases involving the abuse of Hindu women. “In 100 cases of atrocities against Hindu women, all the accused are jihadis. Some people among us are supporting these jihadis. If we study assault cases, you will find that all of them involve Hindu women as victims, and the accused are all jihadis,” he said during a rally organised in Ghargaon village of Sangamner taluka on Monday. The ‘Jankrosh Morcha’ was organised to protest the alleged assault on a tribal woman. The mobile numbers of women are sought under the guise of giving them bakery products, he further alleged. “This leads to the start of a crime,” he said, even as he demanded that all illegal places of worship should be demolished. Jagtap has been at the centre of a controversy after asking citizens last week to make Diwali purchases exclusively from shops owned by Hindus. NCP chief and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar slammed his remarks, saying they were “unacceptable” to the party, following which a show-cause notice was issued to Jagtap on Sunday. The same day, however, Jagtap justified his remark saying that it was the Muslim community that had first appealed to its members to make Eid purchases only from their shops. Anjum Inamdar, a Muslim activist, admitted that Jagtap’s claim on leaflets being distributed urging community members to make Eid purchases from only Muslims was true. “But this incident, I heard, happened four years ago. And it was on WhatsApp. The police had filed a case against the person and he was arrested. Why is Jagtap digging up an old case against which the police have already taken action?” he asked. “The Muslim community is now convinced that Ajit Pawar is not a secular leader. If he was, he would have taken action against Jagtap long back. Jagtap has been repeatedly targeting Muslims and hurting our sentiments. What has Ajit Pawar done so far? He is playing political games in association with the BJP to suit his political convenience,” Inamdar added. A well-thought-out strategy? NCP sources said that Jagtap was likely to tone down his rhetoric ahead of Diwali and the party was likely to let the issue die down on its own. “The NCP is unlikely to take action as it has the backing of BJP.Whatever Jagtap is doing is a well thought out plan of BJP-NCP,'' said an NCP leader. Asked if the party was planning to take further action against Jagtap, state NCP president Sunil Tatkare said, “'We are looking into the issue.” Meanwhile, NCP (SP) leader Supriya Sule said Jagtap should be sacked as he was trying to create bitterness between two communities. “Jagtap’s utterances are against the Constitution and he should be removed by the NCP,” said Sule. The Maharashtra Congress, however, said it was confident that the NCP would not take any action against Jagtap. “They will just make a show of taking action but in reality will not do anything. This is all part of the BJP-NCP strategy. Jagtap cannot dare to speak even after the party issues a notice. It is clear that he is doing it with full backing,” Congress spokesperson Atul Londhe told The Indian Express. There is speculation that Jagtap may join the BJP and contest the 2029 Assembly elections on its ticket. “We will not reply to such hypothetical questions.,” BJP chief spokesperson Keshav Upadhye said, when asked if the party would take him into its fold if he was sacked by the NCP. BJP sources, however, said that the NCP would not sack Jagtap. “It is about local equations. If you want to win elections, you need to take a stand,” a BJP leader said.
