India arrests BJP worker for chanting ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ one year ago

The police in the Indian state of Karnataka has arrested a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) worker for raising ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans over a year ago. The man was taken into custody one day after the arrest of three Congress workers on similar charges, reports Indian media.

The BJP worker, identified as Ravi, 40, in a case registered against him for raising a pro-Pakistan slogan during a December 2022 protest, when the BJP was in government in the state.

The Indian Express has reported that the BJP protest was called against the remarks of the then Pakistani foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. While at the United Nations, Bilawal had called Modi the ‘Butcher of Gujarat’ – a reference to 2002 killing of Muslims when he was Chief Minister of the state. A video of the protest showed Ravi saying “Pakistan Zindabad” even as another person behind him attempted to close his mouth, it added. However, the local chapter of the BJP criticised Ravi’s arrest as “political vendetta”.

The president of BJP’s Mandya district unit was quoted by the Indian Express as saying that Ravi was a farmer and he did not know any language other than his native Kannada and did not know the meaning of the words he spoke.

The arrest came a day after three Congress workers were arrested for raising pro-Pakistan slogans in the Karnataka assembly on February 27 when party candidate Syed Naseer Hussain was elected to the Rajya Sabha. In a video shared by India Today, many congress leaders in the assembly have claimed that the exact words were actually Nasir Hussain Zindabad and not Pakistan Zindabad.

Karnataka Home Minister G. Parameshwara said on Tuesday that pro-Pakistan slogans were raised twice. “We identified the suspects and arrested them. The law will take its course,” he said, according to the Indian Express report.

The police said that the three Congress workers have been identified as Iltaz, from Delhi, Mohammad Nashipuri, a native of Haveri district of Karnataka and Munnawar, a resident of the state capital of Bengaluru on Monday. They remain in police custody, they added.