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Trouble for JD(U) MP as case filed over ‘won’t work for Yadavs and Muslims' remark
The case against Devesh Chandra Thakur has been lodged by a social worker based in Bihar's Muzaffarpur.
He may have ‘retracted’ his statement on the Yadav and Muslim communities of Bihar, yet Janata Dal (United)'s Lok Sabha member Devesh Chandra Thakur now faces a court case for ‘hurting sentiments of Kushwahas, Yadavs, and Muslims.’
Also Read | Muslims, Yadavs didn’t vote for me, won’t help them: JD-U’s Sitamarhi MP Devesh Chandra Thakur
The case was lodged by Dilip Kumar Kushwaha, a social worker, before the Chief Judicial Magistrate's (CJM) court in Muzaffarpur on Thursday.
“The court has fixed July 2 as the date of hearing on our case. We have prayed that the accused MP be booked under IPC sections 501 and 505,” Hari Om Kumar, the counsel for Dilip Kushwaha, the complainant, told PTI.
The sections 501 and 505 of the Indian Penal Code deal with the offences of defamation and creating enmity between communities, respectively.
What's the controversy?
Thakur, a close aide of Bihar chief minister and JD(U) national president Nitish Kumar, was elected Member of Parliament from Sitamarhi in the recently-held Lok Sabha polls, defeating RJD's Arjun Rai by over 51,000 votes. Days after the result, the senior politician, 70, targeted Muslims and Yadavs. He accused them of not voting for him and declared that as a result, he, too would not work for them.
Days later, he directed his anger towards the Kushwaha community, and said that they voted for the Rashtriya Janata Dal as it gave ticket to seven candidates from their community.
The reactions
While RJD's Misa Bharti sought to know what ‘message’ Thakur was trying to send with such a statement, Union minister Giriraj Singh, a leader of JD(U) ally BJP, backed the Sitamarhi MP-elect. Singh remarked that he could ‘empathise’ with Thakur as ‘Muslims have never voted for me since I first became an MP in 2014.’
Also Read | Misa Bharti criticises JDU MP for remark on Yadavs and Muslims, asks what ‘message’ he is trying to send
Meanwhile, JD(U) spokesperson Neeraj Kumar asserted that the senior party member was ‘well within his right’ to voice 'anguish' over the poll outcome in a constituency he had ‘nurtured for long.’
(With PTI inputs)
