Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan is prone to giving controversial statements and for uttering unhinged comments. It seems that the SP leader’s game is up this time as the Uttar Pradesh government has approved the filing of a chargesheet against him. The chargesheet will be filed against Azam Khan for making derogatory remarks against the Indian Army in June last year. The initial complaint against the SP leader had been filed by an individual named Akash Saxena who is the son of a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader. The complaint had been filed under Sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language etc.) and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code. Apart from Saxena, three other complaints were separately filed against the SP leader for making derogatory comments against the Indian Army. Talking about the approval received from the UP government, Rampur Additional Superintendent of Police Sudha Singh said to the reporters, “Administration grants approval to police for action against former Uttar Pradesh minister Azam Khan in a police complaint filed against him for a press statement he made against Indian Army on June 27, 2017.”
The SP leader who had sent top UP cops on the lookout for weeks to bring back the seven stolen buffaloes of his, and had even made sure that 3 of them got punished had made a derogatory remark about the Indian Army. On June 27th, 2017 Azam Khan had appeared in a video giving a statement against the Indian Army where he had wrongly blamed the Indian Army soldiers of committing rape. He was caught on video saying, “Generally heads or hands are cut off. But on this occasion, the female terrorists cut off the private parts of the men. They didn’t have complaints against the hands, heads or feet. They had complaints specifically against the private parts so they cut and took them off. It is a huge message for which the entire country should be ashamed and think how we’ll face the world.”
His statements had caused uproar in the country and people had come over differences of religion and caste to slam the leader for his anti-Army remarks. The senseless statements issued by him had hurt the sentiments of soldiers who come from various religions and castes to protect the motherland together. Offended people had demanded an apology from the SP leader which he had refused to give and hence the initial complaints had been filed against him.
It is a courageous decision by the UP government to pursue the case against a leader who has held important posts in the previous governments and yet chose to blemish the image of the Indian Army. The kind of politics which Azam Khan and his ilk adhere to is hidden from none but somebody had to take the first step and call him out to break his soaring morals. The UP government has done exactly that by allowing the law authorities to file a chargesheet against him in this regard. The Indian Army is the pride of our country and has shown time and again that it deals very strictly with those who break the code of conduct of the Armed Forces.
