Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party president Om Prakash Rajbhar on Saturday stressed that had sacked BJP functionaries Nupur Sharma and Naveen Jindal been arrested earlier for their remarks over Prophet Mohammad, the violence in Uttar Pradesh could have been avoided.
He accused the BJP government of protecting the people who made such controversial comments.
"The government should take action against those who made the controversial remarks and those who took the law into their own hands, but it should not harass the innocent,"Om Prakash Rajbhar told reporters.
"Had the government taken action against Nupur Sharma and Naveen Jindal, who made derogatory remarks, then no (violent) incident would have taken place." He also claimed that the violence in Kanpur last week was a failure of the intelligence system of the government.
On June 3, violence had erupted in parts of Kanpur over the alleged "derogatory" remarks on Prophet Mohammad by former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma during a television debate.
Om Prakash Rajbhar contested the 2022 assembly elections with the Samajwadi Party, whereas in 2017 he was a partner of the BJP.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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