The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday suspended its Telangana MLA T Raja Singh following his controversial remarks allegedly aimed at Prophet Mohammad and sought his reply within 10 days as to why he should not be expelled from the party.
Singh had released a 10-minute video allegedly making derogatory comments about Prophet Muhammad.
Singh, known for his hardline religious rhetoric, was suspended by the party following protests in Hyderabad against his comments leading to his arrest by the Telangana Police.
The BJP's action against the 45-year-old legislator came months after it had suspended its national spokesperson Nupur Sharma for making derogatory comments against the Prophet. Her comments sparked protests abroad as well with several Islamic countries objecting and taking up the matter with India.
Political journey:
Raja Singh is an MLA from Goshamahal in Telangana who retained his Assembly constituency in the December 2018 Telangana Assembly election.
He is a former member of TDP Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and later joined the Bharatiya Janata Party. Singh also occupies the position of party whip for Telangana.
Controversies:
The BJP MLA had landed in several controversies over his hate speeches and derogatory remarks against Muslims and inciting violence.
In the 2014 affidavit, Singh declared that 19 cases were booked against him for promoting enmity between different groups, voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from discharging his duty, mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to destroy a house, trespass, attempt to murder, defiling a place of worship, theft, forgery and rioting. The cases have doubled from 19 in 2014 to 43 in 2018, according to a report by TOI.
In 2015, the BJP MLA was criticized for the attack on a police constable after he stopped Singh from playing loud music at 2 am in the morning at a wedding ceremony. A video showed Raja Singh abusing and shoving the cop.
In 2018 alone, 15 cases were booked against him at Afzalgunj, Abids, Begum Bazar, Mangalhat, Shahinayatgunj, Saifabad and Sultan Bazar police stations for taking out rallies without permission and delivering ‘hate speeches’.
In 2020, Facebook banned the politician from the platform and Instagram for allegedly promoting hate. The social media giant labelled Singh as a "dangerous individual".
Singh stirred controversy over his anti-Muslim rhetoric, which includes calling Muslims traitors and calling for the shooting of Rohingya Muslims.
Singh had recently threatened to stop stand-up comedian Munawar Faruqui's show in Hyderabad and said he would burn down the set at the venue. Following this, his show was cancelled.
Earlier this year in February, Election Commission had censured Raja Singh for threatening people to vote for BJP. He as also barred from campaigning for 72 hours.
(with sources inputs)
