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Newsmaker | BJP’s agent provocateur Nishikant Dubey does it again, this time with attack on CJI

From starting Women’s Reservation Bill debate to targeting the Congress, the party has often turned to the Jharkhand MP to lead the way.

On Saturday, Dubey targeted the Supreme Court, blaming Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna for “all civil wars in the country”. (Express File Photo/Anil Sharma)

If one were to use a football analogy, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey could be described as a midfielder adept at attacking the opponent and manning his party’s defensive lines, taking the heat off its back. This time, however, the parliamentarian from Jharkhand may have crossed a line.

On Saturday, Dubey targeted the Supreme Court, blaming Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna for “all civil wars in the country”. Soon afterwards, BJP president J P Nadda said the party “completely rejected” these remarks and warned against such statements. Dubey in response said he was a “disciplined soldier of the party” and would “go by what the party says” (earlier in the day, he said he had not talked to the party about his views) .

Congress Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh, the party’s communications chief, on Sunday said Nadda’s remarks held “little meaning” and that it was nothing but damage control. Referring to Dubey’s comments that were also echoed by BJP Rajya Sabha MP and former Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma, Ramesh said these MPs were “repeat offenders when it comes to hate speech” and often deployed to “attack communities, institutions, and individuals”.

Born in Deoghar in Bihar and the nephew of a Jana Sangh leader, the 56-year-old Dubey moved into the RSS orbit early, starting with its shakhas. After a stint in the corporate world, he joined active politics in 2009 and has been elected to the Lok Sabha from Godda in Jharkhand four straight times.

Read | ‘Entire political hypocrisy’: Congress sees little value in Nadda’s ‘damage control’ after BJP MPs target judiciary, asks why PM Modi is silent

From Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi to Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, Dubey has often taken the lead in targeting Opposition leaders. In recent years, Dubey has been the BJP’s leader of choice in opening for it during major debates or when taking on the Opposition. He was the surprise choice as the lead speaker during the 2023 debate on the Women’s Reservation Bill in the Lok Sabha, when everyone expected the BJP to field one of its woman MPs.

The same month, as the BJP moved to contain the fallout from the damage that its then Lok Sabha MP Ramesh Bidhuri caused with his offensive remarks about fellow MP Danish Ali, Dubey was again at the forefront defending the party. He claimed several instances when Opposition leaders made “unsavoury remarks” and sought an “inquiry committee to investigate the utterances” various other members made during the discussion on the Chandrayaan 3 mission, during which Bidhuri made the offensive remarks. Dubey’s defence strategy was to suggest that his party colleague had been “instigated”.

Months earlier, Dubey had the Congress up in arms after his comments that the party’s leaders were talking to the representatives of a foreign power “during the Doklam crisis” in 2017 — a reference to China — were first expunged but then restored. The Congress said the move was unprecedented and an “extraordinary phenomenon”.

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This February, Dubey led the charge against Rahul Gandhi after the LoP’s reply to the President’s address triggered a controversy. Dubey wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla seeking privilege proceedings against Gandhi for “shamelessly” distorting “historical and substantive facts” and for “an attempt to ridicule our country and lowering the prestige of our Republic”.

Gandhi, while discussing the foreign policy that an INDIA bloc government would follow, appeared to suggest that the Minister of External Affairs, S Jaishankar, had been sent to the US “three or four times” to get the Donald Trump administration to invite Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the country.

Vocal advocate for NRC

Dubey has also been one of the loudest voices calling for a National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Jharkhand, alleging that uncontrolled entry of undocumented migrants from Bangladesh was leading to demographic changes in the state. Last year, he said during a session of the Lok Sabha that the Malda and Murshidabad districts of neighbouring West Bengal, which border Bangladesh, should be made Union Territories to clamp down on undocumented immigration.

This narrative of undocumented immigration changing the demographic features of the Adivasi regions of Jharkhand became a major poll plank for the BJP in the Jharkhand Assembly late last year. Though it failed to have an electoral impact as the Soren-led Jharkhand Mukti Morcha returned to power, it has not stopped Dubey from staying on the message.

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“This is not an election issue,” Dubey said last month. “Our whole demography has changed. The 45% population of tribals in Jharkhand has come down to 28% in the 2011 census. It would be 23-24% now. Jharkhand was made for the tribals and they are becoming extinct in the state. Congress only looks at its vote bank. It is time to conduct an NRC in Jharkhand. Then, Bangladeshis should be identified and deported in handcuffs.”