NEW DELHI — India's Election Commission is probing the “vote for revenge” remark of Amit Shah, who is a close aide of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and in charge of party in Uttar Pradesh (UP). According to reports, the UP chief electoral officer has sought reports and CD of the alleged hate speech of Shah. Shah reportedly said in a recent election meeting in Muzaffarnagar earlier this week that “this election is about voting out the government that protects and gives compensation to those who killed Jats. It is about badla (revenge) and protecting izzat (honor).” He was accompanied by BJP legislator Suresh Rana, who was an accused in the Muzaffarnagar riots in which over 60 people, mostly Muslims, had died, while thousands were rendered homeless. Attacking Shah for his “provocative hate speech,” Congress complained to the Election Commission on Saturday. The Congress, in its complaint to the poll panel, quoted a media report, which said that Shah had made a “provocative hate speech” in a Muzaffarnagar village “to cause animosity between two communities, where communal violence had taken place recently and a large number of innocent persons were brutally killed.” The Congress sought his arrest and asked for banning him from campaigning for “creating animosity between communities” in western Uttar Pradesh. But the BJP has defended Shah, saying they see “nothing wrong in his remark.” BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman, however, said: “We see nothing wrong in Amit Shah's statement.” “There has been lot of discussion on what Amit Shah has said in a public meeting in Muzaffarnagar. He actually captured the mood of the nation,” Sitharaman said.
