CONG CANDIDATE SENT TO JAIL FOR HATE SPEECH AGAINST MODI

S. Raju, THT, Deoband, 30 March 2014: Imran Masood, Congress candidate from Saharanpur, will fight the April 10 Lok Sabha elections from jail. The 40-year-old was arrested on Saturday for his hate speech against Narendra Modi and sent to 14 days in judicial custody after being denied bail.

Hours after the latest setback to the Congress, its vice-president, Rahul Gandhi, arrived in the constituency for a rally — the party had earlier cancelled his visit — and shared the dais with Masood’s wife and daughter. Condemning the candidate’s choice of words — he had threatened to “chop up” Modi “into pieces” — Rahul said they did not “reflect the ideology of the Congress”. The Congress, while disapproving of the language used, stood by Masood, saying the remarks went back to September 18 last year, when he was with the Samajwadi Party.

A Congress functionary said Rahul’s decision to go ahead with his public meeting indicated that the party was behind Masood. “He didn’t use this language after joining the Congress. But, at the same time, we’ve made it clear… our language and conduct should be decent and dignified.” Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Nirmal Khatri also ruled out any move to withdraw Masood, saying, “We’ll fight the elections strongly from Saharanpur. A new candidate is out of the question.”

A video of the speech surfaced on Wednesday and quickly went viral, prompting the BJP to complain to the Election Commission. In the clip, Masood is shown saying, “Hum Modi ki kutti kaat denge… He thinks UP is Gujarat. There are only 4% Muslims in Gujarat, while in UP, there are 42%.”