Irked over Shazia Ilmi's views on VHP in her article, RSS affiliate calls her 'insane', seeks BJP's clarification

New Delhi: Vishwa Hindu Parishad has launched a scathing attack on Bharatiya Janata Party’s national spokesperson Shazia Ilmi for allegedly making adverse comments on the RSS-affiliate organisation.

The VHP has also put the Sangh’s political outfit, the BJP, in dock by asking it to clarify whether it supports its spokesperson’s views or not.

Shazia in her column in The Indian Express has cast aspersions on the VHP for ‘carrying out a campaign of vilification and defamation against PM Modi and felicitating the remitted convicts in Bilkis Bano rape case’, alleged Vinod Bansal, spokesperson VHP.

The VHP called out Ilmi on her facts about VHP felicitating the convicts and asked BJP to clarify whether it supports her views or not.

“BJP leaders will see whether to respond to our question or not. We are the brothers and whether imported leaders are there to dig BJP’s grave. How dare she could write that we are engaging in vilification of PM Modi. How can she write anything like this? We are proud of our PM. She has not made an effort to cross check facts with us and wrote that VHP felicitated those convicts,” said Bansal.

He further stated, “We too have raised an open ended question. I have given my organisation’s view point and she has giver hers. She has written the article as spokesperson BJP. Party needs to decide what to do with her or clarify its stand.”

Interestingly, both BJP chief JP Nadda and VHP chief Alok Kumar are part of RSS’ ‘Samanvay Baithak’ going on in Chhattisgarh’s Raipur.

While commenting on Ilmi’s article Alok Kumar, VHP working International president told News18.com, ” This article is written by an insane person. The VHP didn’t felicitate convicts. Those were fabricated stories and charge that there is acrimony between the VHP and PM Modi is absolutely false and baseless.”

Commenting on the article and VHP’s accusation that she did not do due diligence in checking facts, the BJP leader said, “I have not written anything like that. No, there is a context behind acrimony part and it was for the then VHP leader Praveen Togadia and between Gujarat CM.”

In her tweets she said, ” In the orginal draft of the editorial, when I mentioned the past acrimony between BJP and VHP, I wrote, ” The then CM, now PM.” However, in the final article, the ‘then CM’ part of it got edited out , giving the impression that the matter is of present day. Even though if VHP members had not felicitated them, then I stand corrected and apologise for the same. And as you rightly said, none of us support violence against women.”

In the orginal draft of the editorial, when I mentioned the past acrimony between BJP and VHP, I wrote, ” The then CM, now PM.” However, in the final article, the ‘then CM’ part of it got edited out , giving the impression that the matter is of present day. Even though…(1/5)

— Shazia Ilmi (@shaziailmi) September 10, 2022

“Indian Express sent me the final piece before publishing, I didn’t notice it then and it was an oversight on my part. The IE team must have edited for the sake of brevity. I was merely referring to the past when the PM was the Chief Minister, and Pravin Togadia publicly ridiculed Modi’s “sadbhavana” rally in 2011. He later went on a fast and hunger strike against the Modi Govt in 2018. I did not, at all refer to anything going on in the present. I was referring to the past(Mr Togadia related only) but the context got lost in the edit,” she added.

“As a former journalist, activist and now as a Spokesperson, my stand on Kashmiri pandits, reforms in the Muslim community, Killing of RSS workers in WB and Kerala is well known… If VHP members had not felicitated them, then I stand corrected and apologise for the same. And as you rightly said, none of us support violence against women,” she said.

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