Despite records of bloody communal riots, India has a discernible secular attitude. This is the reason why Varun Gandhi, a scion of the high-profile Indira Gandhi family, no less, is in trouble for his recent hate speech in his election meeting. Unlike other members of the Gandhi family, he's not a Congressman, and is fighting election from Pilibhit on a BJP ticket.
The Election Commission has gone overboard to file a criminal case against this greenhorn and is all set to award him punishment. The other political parties including the Congress and the leftists have already started clamouring for cancelling his candidature.
Varun, as expected, is citing crap in his defence (victim of political conspiracy, the voice in the CD is not his etc}. All of which show he's a very inexperienced guy, and not savvy enough. How could the BJP field him as a candidate? This is another downside of Indian democracy: as long as you have right connections, you need not be bothered about your qualification.
But the thing I would like to see how the Election Commission finally deals with the issue. Would it punish Varun Gandhi for violation of its model code of conduct?
