Bengaluru: Days after Uttar Pradesh gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf were killed in Prayagraj while in police custody, the issue has become a part of political discourse in Karnataka, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Thursday mounting attack on Congress member of Parliament (MP) Imran Pratapgarhi over his alleged links with Ahmed.
The Congress Wednesday had included Pratapgarhi’s name in a list of 40 star campaigners for the party, ahead of next month’s assembly elections in Karnataka.
Shobha Karandlaje, union minister and BJP MP from Udupi-Chikmagalur, alleged Thursday that Pratapgrahi was a close aide of Ahmed and his family and had made several speeches to provoke Muslims against the Hindu community in the past , including in Karnataka.
“One name [in the list of Congress star campaigners] that makes us anxious is that of a person who was a close aide of dreaded gangster of Uttar Pradesh, Atiq Ahmed, Ashraf Ahmed and his son Asad Ahmed. Asad was killed in a police encounter while Atiq and his brother Ashraf were killed by the public on their way to the hospital. Pratapgarhi is a close friend of Atiq Ahmed and kept referring to him as his guru and brother. He used to write shayaris (poetry) about him,” Karandlaje alleged.
She further claimed that Pratapgrahi had composed and recited poetry about not just the slain gangster-politician, but also against India, the society and to pit Muslims against Hindus.
Pratapgarhi is a Congress Rajya Sabha MP and also the national chairman of the party’s minority cell.
Despite being accused in 130-odd cases, Ahmed had been convicted for the first time only last month. He, his gang and members of his family were also accused in the shooting of BJP leader Umesh Pal in February this year and the 2005 murder of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA Raju Pal.
Ahmed and Ashraf were shot dead, allegedly by three men posing as journalists, while being taken for a medical check-up in police custody. A day before, one of Ahmed’s sons, Asad, and his ‘companion’ Ghulam had been killed in an encounter by UP Police.
Ahmed’s killing while in police custody drew sharp criticism for the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government, with opposition parties questioning the state of law and order in UP.
Referring to Pratapgarh’s name being announced as part of a list of Congress star campaigners, Kanchan Gupta, a senior adviser, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India, took to Twitter to air his concerns.
“Meet Imran Pratapgarhi, Congress MP (Rajya Sabha) and chairman of the Minority Department of All India Congress Committee. His proximity to gangsters ‘Atik Bhai’ and ‘Ashraf Sahib’ is well known. It’s a relationship that goes back in time. Here is Imran Pratapgarhi boasting that the notorious gangsters came home for dinner,” Gupta wrote on Twitter, referring to a past post by the Congress leader.
Gupta tagged also tagged Pratapgarhi’s purported April 2015 tweet where he had shared a photo of Ahmed and Ashraf and written, “Kal raat Atiq bhai aur Ashraf saheb hamaari kutiya par ek chhoti si daawat par tashrif le aaye. [Last night brother Atiq and Ashraf saheb came to my humble abode for a meal].”
Other BJP leaders, including the party’s national spokesperson Sambit Patra, hit out at Pratapgarhi’s inclusion among star Congress campaigners for the Karnataka elections.
ThePrint reached Pratapgarhi for comment over phone but received no response till the time of publication of this report. ThePrint also reached Randeep Singh Surjewala, the All India Congress Committee general secretary in charge of Karnataka, but received no response till the time of publication of this report. The copy will be updated once a response is received.
‘Politics of boti boti katana
On Thursday, while speaking on a Surat court convicting former Congress president Rahul Gandhi in a defamation case, Patra also referred to Pratapgarhi’s name being announced as a star campaigner by the Congress.
“This is Congress party’s character to promote those who speak against India and make them star campaigners. The way Imran Pratapgarhi has become a star campaigner in Karnataka, we have issued his past statements where he had glorified beheading, and considered people like Atiq Ahmed his guru, but this isn’t happening for the first time,” Patra alleged.
Karandlaje Thursday shared an undated purported video byte of Pratapgarhi when he appears to be saying Muslims will chop off heads but not bow before anybody.
He added that some political parties promote those people who believe in the politics of “boti boti kaatna (breaking into pieces)”.
“This is the same Congress that said a grave of Modi will be dug. What can you expect from such a party? This is the same party where Mani Shankar Aiyar is a star campaigner, who goes to Pakistan and urges the removal of Modi. Congress and appeasement are synonymous,” Patra said.
In February this year, a video, purportedly of Congress leaders protesting at an airport tarmac in Delhi went viral, in which chants of “tanashahi nahi chalegi (down with dictatorship)” and “Modi teri kabar khudegi (Modi your grave will be dug)” appeared to have been raised.
The BJP, in the run-up to the Karnataka elections had been focussing more on the alleged failure of the past Congress government in the state under Siddaramaiah and problems in its national leadership.
But Pratapgarhi’s inclusion in the list of campaigners has again moved it to bring up issues like the celebration of Tipu Sultan Jayanthi and alleged protection of radical organisations like the now-banned Popular Front of India (PFI)
Union home minister Amit Shah had in December asked in a public meeting in Bengaluru if voters in Karnataka wanted to back those building the Ram temple or those who glorify Tipu Sultan.
Later in March, Karnataka BJP minister C.N. Ashwath Narayan and other members of the party had claimed two Vokkaliga chieftains, Uri Gowda and Nanje Gowda, had killed Tipu, the 18th century Mysore ruler, in 1799.
Historians refute this claim and even the head pontiff of the Sri Adichunchunagiri Matha, Sri Nirmalanandanatha Swami, had asked BJP minister Munirathna to rethink his decision to make a film on these two “fictional” characters.
The move was seen as the BJPs attempt to get the backing of the dominant Vokkaliga community, a decisive votebank in most of the assembly seats in Old Mysuru districts.
Karandlaje claimed Thursday that Siddaramaiah had announced the celebration of Tipu Sultan Jayanthi in 2015, which no Muslim in the state had asked for.
“There was a big riot (in Kodagu) during the first year of celebrations of Tipu Sultan Jayanthi [in 2015] in which [D.S.] Kuttappa [a Vishva Hindu Parishad worker] was stoned to death,” she alleged.
The union minister also targeted the Congress for allegedly supporting the Popular Front of India (PFI). In 2015, the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government in Karnataka had reportedly withdrawn cases against some who were allegedly part of the PFI.
In September last year, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP government at the centre had banned the PFI and its associates, cracking down on several of its workers in various parts of the country.
The Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), the political wing of the banned PFI, is contesting this year’s assembly elections in Karnataka.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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