BJP, Cong leaders who paid tribute to Anandpal in trouble

A day after newspapers carried reports of BJP and Congress leaders attending an event organised to pay tribute to slain gangster Anandpal Singh on Sunday, both parties took a U-turn on Tuesday and said that they had been invited to the function with misleading information.

BJP leader and Urban Improvement Trust chairperson Priyanka Choudhary, Barmer Congress MLA Mevaram Jain and Rajasthan Cricket Association treasurer and Congress leader Azad Singh had attended the event and all three had paid tribute to Anandpal Singh.

The presence of BJP and Congress leaders at the event had created a buzz in the political circles. After the incident, the leaders are being trolled on social media.

The Ravana Rajput community had organised blood donation camps at all district headquarters in the state on Sunday. Barmer BJP and Congress leaders had attended the programmes, a move seen to woo the Ravana Rajput community ahead of the assembly elections in Rajasthan.

Terming the incident as a “planned political conspiracy against her”, Choudhary released a video on Facebook in which she said that Anandpal was a notorious criminal and he will remain one. The video, too, is being trolled. Within a few hours, the video got 50,000 views and 1400 comments.

Choudhary, in the video, said that she belongs to the farmer community and they are innocent people, adding that the recent episode proves it. The BJP leader said that she has been on a field visit for last three days during which she got an invitation to attend a blood donation camp. She claimed that the organisers had not informed her that the programme was organised in memory of gangster Anandpal Singh on his first death anniversary.

She said that the organisers took advantage of her innocence. She also said that the Ravana Rajput community should understand the difference between martyrs and criminals.

“It happened due to misleading information. Being a politician we have to attend many programmes and sometimes we get trapped in situations and we have no control over them,” said Choudhary. She said that apart from Anandpal’s photo, two martyrs’ photographs were also there. She, however, admitted that she failed to take an immediate decision, as she could have refused to pay tribute to Singh.

Countering the BJP leader’s claim, Faras Singh Panwar, district general secretary of the Ravana Rajput Samaj, Barmer, said that they had appealed to all communities to participate in the programme and informed everyone about the death anniversary of Anandpal Singh. “We did not hide any facts. Priyanka Choudhary was aware of the programme. In her speech, she mentioned Anandpal and paid tribute to him,” said Panwar.

He said that the community needs not take lessons from such politicians. Panwar claimed that Anandpal was the victim of politics.

Reacting on the issue, Congress district president Fatah Khan said that may be Anandpal Singh was a hero to the Ravana Rajput community, but he was criminal for others. He said that it’s BJP’s character to take a U-turn from their stand.

Khan said that it is wrong if Congress legislature Mevaram Jain had attended the event in spite of being aware of its purpose. He, however, said that according to his knowledge Jain was not aware of the programme.

When HT contacted Jain, he said that he was invited to attend a blood donation camp. “I had no idea that it was about the death anniversary of Anandpal Singh,” said Jain.