Why is Gujarat AAP chief Gopal Italia under fire for old controversial videos?
In one of the videos shared from the official twitter handle of Gujarat BJP and Union minister Smriti Irani, Italia can be heard calling the PM ‘neech aadmi’
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Gujarat state convenor Gopal Italia, under fire for allegedly using derogatory language against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, courted yet another controversy on Thursday after another old video resurfaced where he is seen mocking PM Modi and his mother Hira Ba.
The video was shared from the official Twitter handle of Gujarat BJP and Union minister Smriti Irani, where Italia can be heard calling the PM ‘neech aadmi’ (a lowly person).
Hitting out at “gutter mouth Gopal Italia”, Irani said he has been “judged” and that “people will deliver justice”.
“Arvind Kejriwal, gutter mouth Gopal Italia now abuse Hira Ba with your blessings. I proffer no outrage, I don’t want to show how indignant Gujaratis are but know this you have been judged & your party shall be decimated electorally in Gujarat. Now the people will deliver justice,” she tweeted.
Gujarat BJP spokesperson Yamal Vyas said it was shameful on the part of Italia for making such remarks. “First it was the Prime Minister, now he is seen targeting the Prime Minister’s 100-year-old mother. People of Gujarat will not tolerate such kind of behaviour,” Vyas said.
Amit Malviya, in-charge of BJP’s IT cell, also shared the video, and called Italia a “serial offender”.
“Gopal Italia, AAP’s Gujarat President, close aide of Kejriwal, is a serial offender, who treats women with contempt and sexist disregard. After constantly referring to women with the ‘C’ word, offending those who go to katha and mandir, now calls PM’s aged mother ‘nautanki baaz’,” he said.
Italia was briefly detained by the Delhi Police on Thursday from the National Commission of Women’s office in the national capital in connection with a protest at the NCW. He was released a few hours later.
The protest was staged by AAP workers over NCW chief Rekha Sharma’s summons to Italia for a purported old video that recently surfaced where he used abusive language for Prime Minister Modi. The video was shared by Malviya a few days ago.
AAP chief and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal questioned the actions and asked, “Why is the entire BJP against Gopal Italia?”
“With the arrest of Gopal Italia, there is huge anger in the Patel community of the whole of Gujarat,” Kejriwal said.
AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said, “BJP has a long history of crushing the Patel community’s rise by either gunning down their people or arresting them in frivolous cases. Gopal Italia has made a huge leap in politics despite coming from a humble background. Why is the BJP hell bent on imprisoning him? Harassment and malicious action against Gopal Italia have filled the Patidar community of Gujarat with anger and rage.”
Another video, a third one to have resurfaced in the last few days, has also become viral, in which he is seen asking Hindu women not to go to temples and “kathas” (sermons by Hindu priests) as they are places of exploitation.
Also Read:Gujarat AAP chief detained in Delhi, released hours later
The 33-year-old AAP leader is not new to controversies. He was part of the Patidar stir in Gujarat for government reservation to their community members for jobs and education. Italia was a member of the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti launched by Hardik Patel in 2015 to fight for the community’s reservation demands.
The AAP is making inroads for the upcoming Gujarat elections, trying to position itself as the main opponent to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. The party has been making promises of free electricity, stipend for unemployed youth and monthly allowance to women, among others. Italia is seen as a top contender for the party’s chief ministerial candidate later this year.
Italia has been the state president of AAP in Gujarat since 2020, and has been instrumental for ‘new entrant’ AAP’s performance in the Surat civic body polls in January 2021 where it replaced Congress as the main opposition party; BJP won the polls.
Surat, which has 15 assembly seats, was at the centre of the Patidar agitation and people believe one of the reasons behind AAP’s stellar performance in the civic polls was because they got a lot of support from PAAS members.
“Italia is an emerging youth politician who represents the neo-urban population seeking a quick change. He comes across as an extremely tough person but does not seem to be a strategy maker. Politicians try to manage contradictions, and this is what AAP and Italia are trying to do by projecting him as a Patidar leader,” said Vidyut Joshi, a political expert and former vice-chancellor of Bhavnagar University.
A political science graduate from Gujarat University, Italia hails from a village in Bhavnagar district of Saurashtra region.
In January 2017, an audio clip went viral on the social media in which he had called up the then deputy chief minister Nitin Patel to complain that the changes in the prohibition policy were not sufficient.
The audio clip caused a major embarrassment in the state government, because Italia, who was then a contractual revenue clerk, posed as a constable and alleged that the senior officers were preventing juniors from enforcing prohibition laws in Gujarat. Italia was slapped with an impersonation charge and fired from the job.
He did work briefly for the Gujarat police once, but as a contractual Lok Rakshak Dal jawan.
