For Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) newly wedded MP Varun Gandhi, the honeymoon maybe soon be over.
The district court of Pilibhit hearing Varun Gandhi's 2009 hate speech case, ordered framing of charges against him Varun on Monday. Fixing July 6, 2011 as the next date for hearing the case, the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Pilibhit Ajay Krishna also ordered the prosecution to produce witnesses in the case.
The move is sure to come as a matter of concern for Varun and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) keeping in mind the 2012 assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh particularly because the party has been trying to set aside its allegedly communal tint for quite sometime now. With the court proceedings underway, the BJP may have to rethink over showcasing of Varun as a mascot of firebrand politics in the party's campaign in UP.
Testing the political waters in the general elections for the first time in 2009, Varun had contested from Pilibhit - a seat vacated by his mother Meneka Gandhi who then contested from Aonla. Unsure of the poll results particularly after the delimitation of constituencies which had led to shifting of traditional votebanks from one constituency to another, Varun was alleged to have used the communal card to ensure polarisation of electorate and his subsequent victory from Pilibhit. The move paid.
Varun has been shying away from owning up the contents of the said hate speech against a particular community and a political party. Though initially he did admit that person in the video clip was he but had claimed that the clip had been doctored and that the voice in the clip was not his.
The hate speech trouble for Varun had started on March 17, when the government ordered an FIR to be lodged against him at Barkheda Police Station in Pilibhit. Varun was quick to approach the Allahabad High Court (on March 19) seeking quashing of this FIR which was lodged under Indian Penal Code (IPC) section 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups on ground of religion) and 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by a public servant) along with section 125 of the Representation of the People Act. The court dismissed the plea.
Varun surrendered in Pilibhit on March 28, 2009 and NSA was slapped on him, the next day. He was released on bail on April 16, 2009.
Trouble for Varun on his alleged hate speech seemned virtually inevitable during the initial stages of the controversy itself particularly after the Election Commission probed the complaint and found him guilty of making the hate speech. The EC even even advised the BJP not to feild him as a candidate in the Lok Sabha polls. The BJP overlooked the ECs advice claiming it was bias.