Goshamahal legislator T Raja Singh, infamous for his hate speeches, has courted controversy yet again, in violation of the Telangana High Court orders, by targeting Muslim women this time. The MLA, who was addressing a gathering in Telangana’s Adilabad district on Sunday, June 4, urged Hindu women against befriending Muslim women.
“Whoever has a tilak on his forehead is my brother and a Hindu. I will befriend only people who sport a tilak. And our women please do not become friends with burqa-wearing women. There was a time when we were under threat from Aftab, but now there is a threat from Ayesha as well. These are the Ayeshas who are introducing [our] women to Aftabs,” he said in a clear reference to The Kerala Story, a recent Hindi movie that was panned widely. The film seeks to promote a fake narrative of ‘love jihad’, wherein Muslim men ‘trap’ Hindu women and convert them to Islam.
It is to be noted that Raja Singh was suspended from the BJP last August after his alleged derogatory remarks against Prophet Mohammed, which led to a law and order situation in Hyderabad. He was arrested and remained in prison for at least 75 days. The Telangana High Court, however, granted him conditional bail in the case, warning him against making provocative speeches against any religion and also told him to desist from derogatory and offensive social media posts.
But in violation of these orders, the Goshamahal MLA has been continuously making communal speeches. Between January and February this year, Raja Singh attended several rallies in Maharashtra organised by extremist organisations, where he made open calls for boycott of and violence against Muslims. The Mangalhat police had even issued show-cause notices after going through his hate speeches against Muslims in Maharashtra. However, these actions have hardly been a deterrent for the bigoted MLA.
Earlier in March, during the Ram Navami Shoba Yatra procession held in Hyderabad, he had yet again targeted the Muslim community, giving a call to make India a unified Hindu state (Akhand Hindu Rashtra).
“Today in India, there are 100 crore Hindus. So why not declare India as a Hindu country? Today, we have more than 50 Islamic countries and 150 Christian countries. So today I want to ask those ‘impotent’ leaders who are against Akhand Hindu Rashtra, why are you objecting to it?” Raja Singh had challenged.