The Bharatiya Janata Party in Gujarat seems to have gotten an upper hand against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) that has been gaining favour among masses in the build up to Gujarat Assembly polls. AAP’s Gujarat president Gopal Italia is on the receiving end of BJP’s attack as several of his supposedly “anti-Hindu” videos and footage of him using “derogatory language” against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as well as his centenarian mother, have been gaining popularity on social media in the past week.
Many social media users have also been posting Italia’s old pictures with activists including Medha Patkar of Narmada Bachao Andolan, Shabnam Hashmi of ANHAD to discredit him for associating with "anti-Gujarat and anti-Hindu forces."
The attack on Italia comes days after Modi said that unlike previous years when the Congress used to “abuse” him, this time around it has outsourced the job to others, hinting at AAP.
BJP leaders in attack formation
Many BJP leaders, including Union minister Smriti Irani, have upped the ante against AAP by seeking an explanation from Kejriwal, to seemingly put the rival party on the backfoot.
“If you think abusing the prime minister and his mother will help you gain political popularity in Gujarat, you are mistaken. And for that mistake, Gujarat and Gujaratis will make you pay the political price in the forthcoming elections,” Irani told reporters in Delhi. A day earlier, she had called him “gutter mouth” in a tweet.
Union minister and BJP MP from Surat Darshana Jardosh also attacked Italia at a public event, and asked the public to give him a befitting reply in the Assembly polls of the latter’s alleged transgressions.
The BJP seems to be trying hard to suppress AAP’s rising popularity by targeting Italia for his “attack on son of the soil Narendra Modi and Gujarati pride”. However, the Kejriwal-led party is rallying the Patidar community—one of the most influential communities in the state—to defend their member Italia.
Italia appeared before the National Commission for Women in New Delhi on Thursday, after which he was detained by Delhi Police for nearly three hours. His party leaders—including Kejriwal and Raghav Chadha—defended him and called the police action a result of “BJP’s hatred for the Patidar community”.
Meanwhile, Italia responded to Irani with a tweet attaching a picture, showing police lathi charging a group of women purportedly during the 2015 Patidar agitation for reservation. Italia wrote that “the children of Kansa are preaching on Mother who entered the residential society, abused and lathicharged innocent women”.
Defending himself against accusations
“Smritiben Irani is claiming that the mother of the honourable Prime Minister has been insulted. I believe that the way Prime Minister and Smritiben are running the government, the way inflation has increased, is the biggest insult to mothers of family members of six crore Gujaratis. These mothers can’t feed their children, send them to schools for education and are unable to access good hospitals for treatment. I respect the mother of our Prime Minister, but crores of mothers are being insulted due to lack of facilities,” Italia said at a public gathering in Rajkot, after returning from Delhi.
“Why are they targeting Gopal Italia? I am a common man who comes from a poor family. I am not even a big public personality. The only reason I can think of is that the BJP can’t see anyone from the Patidar community rise. They hate Patidars and that’s why they either hate them, shoot them or keep them in the party to render them useless,” Italia alleged.
The BJP already tasted success when it forced Kejriwal’s minister Rajendra Pal Gautam to resign when a video showing him at a religious conversion event in Delhi surfaced. During his last Gujarat visit, Kejriwal was “greeted” with posters of him wearing a skull cap with messages of being “anti-Hindu”.
Who is Gopal Italia?
The 33-year-old Gopal Italia is a political science graduate from Gujarat University. Currently the president of Gujarat unit of AAP, he joined Gujarat Police as a constable (Lok Rakshak Dal) at Ahmedabad’s Madhupura police station. He worked there for four years before becoming a revenue clerk at the Ahmedabad collectorate.
He shot to fame in 2017, when his telephone conversation with the then Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel, in which he complained of ineffective liquor prohibition law while impersonating as a policeman, went viral. He was arrested by Ahmedabad Crime Branch.
He is also the person who threw shoes at the then Minister of State for Home Pradipsinh Jadeja. Italia was part of the Patidar agitation for reservation along with Hardik Patel, who is now with the BJP.