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Journalism of Courage
A day after he “purified” a Ram temple in Rajasthan after Leader of the Opposition Tika Ram Jully, a Dalit, visited it, the BJP on Tuesday suspended its former MLA Gyandev Ahuja and issued him a show cause notice for “tarnishing the image of the party”.
In his notice to 74-year-old Ahuja, BJP state general secretary and Lok Sabha MP Damodar Agarwal reminded him about his pledge while becoming a member of the BJP. “I do not believe in untouchability in any form, nor do I allow it to be practiced, and I do not believe in any kind of discrimination on the basis of caste, gender or religion,” he said.
Agarwal also pointed out that the “first stone during the foundation stone laying ceremony for the Ram Temple in Ayodhya was laid by Kameshwar Chaupal, a Dalit”.
Late on Monday, BJP state president Madan Rathore had issued a statement saying that the party did not support Ahuja’s actions.
However, this is not the first time Ahuja has landed the BJP in a soup. In August 2022, the party had distanced itself from his remarks boasting he had killed five of “them”, in an apparent reference to alleged cow smugglers.
In the video, Ahuja was heard telling a person sitting next to him, “Panditji, ab tak toh paanch humne maare hain, Lalwandi mein maara, chahe Behror mein maara, chahe (unclear) mein maara, ab tak toh paanch hum ne maare hain. Is area mein pehli baar hua hai ke unhone maara hai (Panditji, we have killed so far, be it in Lalwandi, be it Behror – we have killed five so far. It has happened for the first time in this area that they have killed someone).”
While dairy farmer Pehlu Khan was allegedly lynched in Behror on April 2017, Rakbar was allegedly lynched in Lalwandi under Ramgarh police station in July 2018.
Identified by his fierce moustache, Ahuja’s last term as a Ramgarh MLA (2013-18) was riddled with accusations of rise in cow vigilantism, which often turned violent, and sometimes fatal, in Alwar and in neighbouring districts.
In the video, Ahuja went on to say, “Maine khullam khulla chhut de rakhi hai karyakartaon ko, maaron sa**** ko jo gokashi (unclear)… bari bhi karwayenge, zamanat bhi karwa denge (I have given a free hand to the workers, kill those ******… I will get you acquitted, will get you bailed too).” He was booked by the Alwar police for his remarks on the basis of a complaint filed by a beat constable who was present at the spot. In 2021, Ahuja was booked in connection with a hate speech case.
A native of Beawar, Ahuja was earlier a journalist, working as the managing editor of now-defunct weekly Mat Sammat. His profile on the Assembly website lists also acting in plays as his “special interest”.
His roots in the RSS go way back, starting with the Sangh’s Hindu Jagran Manch, Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, and Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). He told The Indian Express earlier that he had been with the RSS since 1958, when he was eight years old.
Ahuja was first elected from Ramgarh in Alwar in 1998, 2008 and in 2013. In 2018, he was among a handful of known rabble-rousers who were dropped by the BJP. His opposition to the then Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje was seen to be a likely cause behind the party dropping him. However, the BJP subsequently made him vice-president of the state unit. Ahead of the 2022 Rajya Sabha polls, Ahuja sought a ticket but was denied.
In 2023, the BJP had fielded Ahuja’s nephew Jai Ahuja from Ramgarh. However, with Jai coming in third, the BJP fielded party rebel Sukhvant Singh in the 2024 bypoll, necessitated by the death of sitting Congress MLA Zubair Khan. Sukhvant went on to win the contest.
Ahuja’s claim to infamy, apart from cow vigilantism, was his February 2016 comment where claimed “3,000 beer cans and bottles, 2,000 bottles of country liquor, 10,000 butts of cigarettes, 4,000 pieces of beedi, 50,000 big and small pieces of bones, 2,000 polyethene (wrappers) of chips and namkeen as well as over 3,000 used condoms are found daily on JNU campus, apart from 500 injections used to abort foetuses, where the girls and boys dance naked in cultural programmes.”
When The Indian Express had asked him about his source of information, he had said that he had received the information on WhatsApp. The same month, he had told journalists that, “I am among those politicians who stand by their words sternly. Other leaders look left-right and deny what they’ve said or that they meant it differently, but I will only say that I will hold a long press conference, and in an organised manner will display the proof and evidence (for it).”
In December 2017, he had said: “Gau taskari karoge, aur gokashi karoge, toh yun he maroge (smuggle or slaughter cows, and you’ll be killed).” The following year, when the BJP lost the Ajmer and Alwar Lok Sabha bypolls, an audio clip of Ahuja had gone viral where he apparently blamed Raje for the defeats.
