Only imitated Munawar Faruqui: Raja Singh to BJP on Prophet comments

Hyderabad: Responding to the BJP’s Central Disciplinary Committee, suspended MLA from Goshamahal T Raja Singh said that he has not violated any of the party’s rules with regard to his comments on Prophet Muhammad. Singh in fact went on to say that his derogatory remarks were made as he “only imitated” comedian Munawar Faruqui.

The committee in its notice dated August 23, 2022 sought an explanation after the police booked Raja Singh for making derogatory remarks against Prophet Muhammad, which led to widespread unrest and condemnation in Hyderabad. Prior to him, ex-BJP spokesperson was also suspended for her remarks on the Prophet, which drew global criticism, especially from Muslim nations.

In his reply, Raja Singh reiterated that he did his best for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). “In these eight years as an MLA, never violated party discipline. I participated in every program the party organized unless I had some unavoidable work. I followed all directions and orders of the party without fail. I tried my best to successfully discharge all duties entrusted to me by the party,” he stated.

’AIMIM working with TRS’

He alleged that the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) is working with the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) since 2014. Both these parties have been “taking up developmental activities on religious grounds”, Raja Singh claimed. In his letter to the BJP high command, he stated that though Hindus are a majority in India, Muslims are a majority and Hindus a minority in Goshamahal constituency (which is unlikely to be the case).

“AIMIM has been troubling the minority Hindu population with the support of TRS now and Congress before 2014. Every welfare measures in constituency is aimed at benefitting people of a particular religion,” he said targeting the AIMIM party.

Munawar Faruqui case background

Explaining the backdrop of comedian Munawar Faruqui’s visit to Hyderabad and his comedy show, Raja Singh stated that he had appealed to the TRS government to not give permission for the it.

“As there exist allegations that same comedian provoked communal tension by making vulgar comments against Hindu Gods and Goddesses, I as BJP legislature party leader, appealed to the TRS government not to allow Munawar Faruqui to organize the show. The state government ignored my suggestion but instead invited him to Hyderabad and provided security cover for the show. As many as 500 BJP activists were arrested on the day of the show,” Raja Singh said.

Arrest and subsequent detention under PD Act

The suspended BJP MLA taken into custody after he tried to protest and disrupt Munawar Faruqui’s show, which was held in Hyderabad on August 20. After that, he promised to release his own ‘comedy’ video. Two days later on the night of August 22, Raja Singh put out a video in which he passed derogatory comments against Prophet Muhammad on ‘Jai Shri Ram’ YouTube channe.

Raja Singh was booked and arrested the next day by the Hyderabad police. However, he managed to secure bail due to a legal glitch. Him coming out on bail led to several protests being held once again on August 24, following which the police also cracked down heavily on protestors.

The Hyderabad police soon sent Raja Singh notices pending in other cases and detained him under the Preventive Detention (PD) Act on August 26. Since then, he has been lodged in Cherlapally jail. The police stated that 101 cases have been booked against the MLA since 2004 and that 18 of them were for communal communal incidents in the old city of Hyderabad.

Since then, supporters of Raja Singh have protested at various places demanding his release.

‘Did not criticise religious figure’

Defending his comments on Prophet Muhammad, Raja Singh said that he made the video to make “people understand how Munawar Faruqui does his show”. He stated, “I neither belittled any religion nor did I criticize the religious figure of any religion in my video. I did not use abusive or harsh language. I didn’t mention the name of any one in my video. I didn’t deliberately hurt the sentiments of any religion.”

Finally, he requested the BJP high command to consider his appeal and said, “I hereby promise that I as a BJP karyakarta, will not do anything that brings disrespect to the party.”