A Telangana lawmaker's sickening remark - "poison your girl if she becomes a victim of 'love jihad' and refuses to return (re-convert)" - has kicked up a row. T Raja Singh, the MLA from Hyderabad's Goshamahal, also drew flak over defamatory remarks about Prophet Mohammad.
A police case was filed Saturday after a video of the remark by Singh, an ex-Union Minister at a public event in Madhya Pradesh during Dussehra celebrations last week - emerged online.
The event was filled with chants of 'Jai Shri Ram' and over 1,100 young people were 'initiated' into a right-wing group called Hindu Yuva Vahini and presented with symbolic swords.
Singh is no stranger to making hateful or communally-charged remarks.
Last year, while visiting Goa, he demanded the Christian community 'unite' with the Hindu to resist 'love jihad', which is the term used by right-wing groups to target relationships between Muslim men and Hindu women, which, they say, are ruses to forcibly convert the latter.
His Goa activities included tearing up the Bangladeshi flag.
In August 2022 Singh was arrested by Hyderabad Police after he released a video in which he made remarks about the Prophet; the remarks - a response to a show by stand-up comic Munawar Faruqui - sparked protests. Then with the BJP, he was suspended from the party.
He was released on bail within hours. Two days later he was arrested again.
In October his suspension was revoked so he could contest the state election. He was also made the BJP's state unit chief.
In 2020 he was banned from Facebook after it designated him a 'dangerous individual' and permanently banned him from all its platforms, citing repeated hate speech and incitement of violence.
Singh has won the Goshamahal seat three times in a row for the BJP, beginning with the first Telangana Assembly poll in 2014. He has also quit the party three times since.
READ | Telangana MLA Raja Singh Quits BJP, Flags State Party Chief Choice
The third was in June; that was after reports claimed the party had chosen N Ramchander Rao as the next state unit leader. Rao was sworn in the following month, and a bitter Singh has lashed out at his former employers, accusing them of failing to keep promises.
