NEW DELHI: Authorities have lifted a campaigning ban imposed on a key aide to India’s likely next prime minister Narendra Modi after he allegedly told Hindu community leaders to seek “revenge” in the country’s elections.
Amit Shah, who has been running the campaign for Modi’s opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the pivotal Uttar Pradesh state, has been in the eye of a public storm after allegedly making the comments in an area where Hindu-Muslim clashes left some 50 people dead in September.
India’s powerful Election Commission on Friday barred Shah from holding public rallies, meetings and roadshows, but decided late on Thursday to lift the ban after he promised not to “use abusive or derogatory language in the campaign”.
Shah, 50, is a key confidant to hardline Hindu nationalist Modi, the frontrunner in mammoth multi-stage elections that are set to vault the BJP to power, ousting the ruling Congress party. Results are due May 16.
Shah has been dogged by scandals — facing murder and extortion charges which date back to his time serving under Modi in Gujarat state — and is seen as a potential liability to the party leader, who is running on a platform of clean government.
The aide’s alleged comments had been seen as an attempt to polarise voters on the religious lines for electoral gains, with critics worried that the BJP’s Hindu nationalist rhetoric could stoke religious tensions in a country where 13 per cent of the 1.2-billion population is Muslim.
Shah — one of the most important campaign players for the BJP — has maintained a low profile since the controversy over his alleged remarks, and told the media it was never his intention to violate the electoral code of conduct.
He is not the only politician to have landed in hot water over campaign speeches.
The Electoral Commission has also ordered a probe into statements by Azam Khan, a prominent Muslim leader of the regional Samajwadi Party which is the ruling party in Uttar Pradesh.