A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA in Alwar district of Rajasthan, Gyan Dev Ahuja has gained attention recently, by making a series of bigoted and misogynist statements.
Elected from Ramgarh constituency in 2013, he came into the limelight when he became a subject of national mockery over his comments about JNU students in 2016. According to Ahuja, 3,000 cans of beer, 3000 condoms, 10,000 cigarette buds and 4000 bidi stubs are found on the campus daily. He had also said that JNU students dance naked after 8 . All of these absurd observations, according to Ahuja, were “facts”.
Before he could become irrelevant as just another BJP MLA who makes cartoonish remarks, Ahuja started spouting more sinister words.
In December 2017, a man named Zakir was severely beaten up by a mob on suspicion of “cow smuggling”, following which, Ahuja lent his support to the violent mobs by saying, “If you will engage in cow smuggling or cow slaughter, you will die like this.” This was months after Pehlu Khan was brutally lynched to death in Alwar in April that year. Six others who were accompanying Pehlu Khan were also severely beaten by the mob.
Ahuja’s statement might have been grounds for prosecution in any other civilised nation where hatred wasn’t normalised, but in ours, it had already become “the new normal.”
On June 27 2018, after another mob killed a Muslim man, Rakbar Khan, again on suspicion of “cow smuggling”, Ahuja doubled down on his previous statement and said that “cow-slaughter” was a crime bigger than terrorism. He justified murder, like the lynching of Rakbar and Pehlu, on the basis of “hurt sentiments of Hindus”. “Terrorists kill two or three people, but when a cow is killed, sentiments of crores of people are hurt. If cows are killed, people will be angry and cow smugglers will face consequences,” he had said.
With mobs of “cow vigilantes” running rampant and attacking minorities, and especially in his own constituency, an elected official’s open endorsement of murder is tantamount to incitement of violence.
There is more evidence that points to Gyan Dev Ahuja’s involvement in the lynching. An eyewitness to Rakbar’s murder, who was also beaten up by the mob but managed to escape has said that the mob assailants were MLA Ahuja’s men.
Numerous questions were raised about the role of police in the matter. The four-hour delay by Rajasthan Police in taking Rakbar to the hospital has been reported widely. He was pronounced dead on arrival upon reaching the hospital.
Even eyewitnesses have said that the police also beat up Rakbar, when he was in custody en route to the hospital. Rajasthan Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria confirmed that Rakbar died in police custody.
However, instead of answering questions about the involvement of his men in the attack, Ahuja has asked for the mob attackers to be set free and for a case to be filed against the lynching victim.
Endorsing murder was not enough for Ahuja. On August 1, 2018, Ahuja issued another statement, which appears to be an open threat to sexual violence. He said, “Our girls whom you have lured with love Jihad, I will give you time for that. Either bring them back otherwise, if 10 girls have gone then 20, if 20 have gone then 40 and if 40 have gone then your 80 daughters will not be safe because you have forced religious conversion,” reported ANI.
Such consistent advocacy of violent crimes by an elected representative from the BJP should have been grounds for dismissal and prosecution. However, party chief Amit Shah and other senior leaders continue to remain silent over his threatening remarks. With both Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi continuously making public speeches on a range of matters, their refusal to acknowledge lynchings and their own party members’ seriously violent comments appears to be a convenient omission.