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Jaswant’s wife moves court over Raje poster
Sheetal Kanwar files a case against the portrayal of Vasundhra Raje as goddess and Vajpayee, Advani and Rajnath Singh as Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh respectively, reports KS Tomar.
Veteran BJP leader Jaswant Singh’s wife Sheetal Kanwar on Tuesday filed a case in Jodhpur court against the portrayal of Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhra Raje as goddess and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, LK Advani and Rajnath Singh as Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh respectively.
She alleged that a poster with these images had hurt her religious sentiments, which was a crime under the Indian Penal Code.
Earlier, on May 22, the former union minister’s wife had filed a compliant with the Partapnagar police station on the same issue. Since the police did not register an FIR or take action in the matter, she felt compelled to move court, Sheetal Kanwar told HT on phone from Jodhpur.
“I have filed a case in the court through my counsels Girdhar Bhati and Deepak Maneriya. It might come up for hearing on Wednesday,” she said.
In her complaint, she has alleged that a poster was printed by Pandit Hemant Vohra and was released by BJP legislator Suryakant Vyas on the occasion of completion of Raje government’s three years in office on April 15, 2007. The poster had shown Raje as Maa Annapurna, Vajpayee as Brahma, Advani as Vishnu, Rajnath as Mahesh, state forest minister Laxmi Narayan Dev as Kuber and UDH minister Partap Singh Singhvi as Inder, she said.
Kanwar alleged the police were intentionally delaying the inquiry hence she had moved court.
Superintendent of police, Jodhpur, Hawa Singh Ghumeria said the inquiry was delayed since Additional SP Sawai Singh Godhara was earlier deputed in Kauroli during the Gujjar agitation and later met with an accident. “The inquiry has been handed over to another ASP, Shiv Lal Joshi and will be completed soon. There is no question of intentional delay,” he said.
Pandit Vohra, meanwhile, reacted sharply to the allegation and said that he was a grassroots worker of the BJP and gave the status of ‘Maa Annapurna’ to Raje as she had started schemes such as mid-day meal and poverty alleviation programmes. “Vajpayee, Advani and Rajnath Singh have been shown as gods due to their contributions to society, which is in accordance with Indian tradition,” he said.
