Gujarat elections are approaching fast and the dates will be announced in the coming days. The BJP has been releasing videos of Gujarat AAP chief Gopal Italia. So far, three videos have surfaced. Italia can be seen flagrantly sporting vile and vituperative language towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his first two videos, and in the third, he exhorted women not to visit temples and the Katha ceremonies, calling them a den of exploitation.
Gopal Italia is seen in the latest video making disparaging statements against PM Modi’s centenarian mother, Hira Ba.
The NCW had summoned Italia after taking cognizance of the video where he could be heard using expletives and misogynistic language. He apparently claimed that he knew only Gujarati when the National Commission for Women threw him some tough questions.
Gopal Italia, the 33-year-old AAP Gujarat chief, was a police constable at the Madhupura police station in 2013, and later joined another government job as a clerk. He was suspended in 2014 for violating the service rules as opposed to leaving government jobs to pursue something more meaningful.
Since then, he participated in many anarchist movements alongside Hardik Patel, and later embarked on a journey of political stunts. He shot to fame in 2017 when his telephone conversation with the then deputy chief minister Nitin Patel, in which he complained of ineffective liquor prohibition law while impersonating as a policeman, went viral.
His viral audio clip with Nitin Patel sparked outrage, leading to police charges under Section 120 of the IPC. In 2017, Italia pulled another political contrivance as he hurled a shoe at the then Gujarat home minister, Pradipsinh Jadeja. Italia is also accused of exhorting people to target BJP members.
An Arms Act accused is AAP’s face in the upcoming Gujarat assembly elections. So much for the stark irony coming from a party which claimed to have come into being to transform the Indian polity.
But what is rather perplexing is the deafening silence, or, I must reiterate, the apathy of certain media entities when it comes to Gopal Italia’s blatant, bigoted display of Indophobia and misogyny. Gopal Italia has publicly shared the dais with Shabnam Hashmi, who left no stone unturned to prevent Gujarat from getting the water of Narmada, and Nirjhari Sinha, who ran a lifelong anti-Gujarat smear campaign with her husband Pavan Sinha, with their son Mukul Sinha taking their legacy forward by kickstarting the “sar tan se juda” macabre in India, where this writer was himself a part of the hit list.
But what is rather appalling is the fact that they united under the banner of “dismantling India”. Gopal Italia is supposedly an urban Naxal who not only wants to dismantle Hinduism, which is more of a recent trend, but he is a dignitary at much older events aimed at ravishing the integrity of the Indian republic.
A few of his videos of abusing incumbent PM Shri Narendra Modi’s mother, Hira Ba, hurling casteist abuses at PM Modi have gone viral, but what rather concerns the average law-abiding citizen is his sheer abhorrence towards Hindus.
An audio clip of him heckling Hindu saints on the phone has become a household topic in Gujarat, while his videos describing Hindu temples as “places of abuse” and declaring devotees attending Satyanarayan Katha as Hijras (eunuchs) have hurt Hindu sentiments across India while also displaying his anti-LGBTQ+ stance.
He has time and again bashed Hindu temples, priests, and worship methods, making him the blighter that every citizen believing in equality and the constitution struggles to fathom the rule of law in India.
One wonders how the AAP that aims to become the national alternative to the BJP can have such a person to lead the party ion Gujarat. It’s an obvious self-goal as people of Gujarat are hurt by his anti-Hindu, anti-temple and anti-women statements. The AAP’s refusal and constant support for Gopal Italia also seems to reaffirm its misogynist outlook.
If the Aam Aadmi Party is intending to win the Gujarat elections, then Gopal Italia’s libels will have to be abandoned. It is important to understand here that whenever a political adversary has indulged in badmouthing against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP has always benefited from it.
Yuvraj Pokharna is an independent journalist and columnist. He tweets at @pokharnaprince. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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