India's main Hindu nationalist party refused Monday to drop Varun Gandhi, the great-grandson of India's first prime minister as a candidate after the Election Commission (EC) found him guilty of hate speech and inciting violence against Muslims. Varun Gandhi, 29, was filmed comparing a rival Muslim politician to Osama Bin Laden and threatening to cut the throats of Muslims during two political rallies earlier this month. Gandhi is the descendant of former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, a founder of India's secular democracy and the dynasty of politicians who have dominated the governing Congress party. However, Varun is a member of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. Late Sunday, the EC found him guilty of inciting hatred and urged the BJP to drop him, saying it would be “perceived as endorsing his unpardonable acts of inciting violence and creating feelings of enmity and hatred between different classes of citizens of India.” However, on Monday the BJP refused. “As far as candidature is concerned, I want to say this in clear words that Varun Gandhi will remain our candidate. And we will go for campaigning for him,” BJP president Rajnath Singh said. BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley said: “The power to advice as to who should be the party's candidate and who should not be the candidate does not rest with the Election Commission.” He suggested that the EC should instead stop candidates with a criminal background from entering the fray. He said that political parties were putting up candidates convicted of terrorism, “under section 302 of the IPC in some cases,” apparently referring to Samajwadi Party's Lok Sabha candidate from Lucknow Sanjay Dutt. The statement from the EC said that Varun's “speeches contained highly derogatory references and seriously provocative language of a wholly unacceptable nature.” It said it lacked the authority to bar Varun from the elections unless he had been convicted by a court. The EC rejected Varun's claims the footage of his speeches had been doctored, saying it “is fully convinced and satisfied that the CD has not been tampered with, doctored or morphed.” The EC has already directed officials in Uttar Pradesh state, where Varun is running, to file a criminal case against him for “promoting hatred,” said Rajesh Malhotra, a commission spokesman. If convicted, Varun could be disqualified from running for office and imprisoned for up to five years. The footage – recorded at rallies on March 6 and 8 in Pilibhit, a constituency once held by Gandhi's mother, Maneka Gandhi, a daughter-in-law of former prime minister Indira Gandhi – was broadcast repeatedly on Indian televisions channels last week. “All the Hindus stay on this side and send the others to Pakistan,” he said in the video. “This is the Lotus hand, “ he said, referring to the symbol of the BJP. “It will cut their throats after elections.” Varun belongs to the powerful Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, which has produced three prime ministers over six decades and has long promoted secularism and tolerance for religious minorities. Varun is the son of Sanjay Gandhi, the younger brother of Rajiv Gandhi, who died in a plane crash in 1980. In an unprecedented act, Varun's cousin Priyanka Gandhi, daughter of Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, Monday hit out at Varun. “It is really very sad to see him (Varun) saying all these on television,” Priyanka said in Rae Baraeli, Uttar Pradesh in northern India. “This is not what the Gandhis lived and died for.”
