Days after a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lawmaker asked people not to purchase vegetables from Muslim vendors, another party legislature got caught in a similar controversy. A video of BJP MLA Brijbhushan Rajput is going viral in which he can be heard threatening a vegetable vendor for identifying himself with a Hindu name despite being a Muslim.
The video shows Rajput asking a vegetable vendor in his residential locality of Lucknow’s Gomti Nagar about his name. The vendor replied “Rajkumar”. This infuriated the legislators who threatened to beat him up for lying. “Sahi bolo nahin to maar maar kay thik kar dunga tumhe,” he can be heard saying in the video.
Rajput – the MLA from Charkahari Assembly constituency under Mahoba district of Uttar Pradesh– then asked the kid accompanying the vendor about his real name. The kid blustered out the truth. “Ajiz-ur-Rahman,” the kid said.
“You were lying about being a Muslim,” the MLA shouted. The man who filmed the video asked the vendor why he was lying but the child intervened and requested to leave them.
“Do not be seen in this locality again,” Rajpoot shouted as the duo was leaving.
MLA Brijbhushan Rajput later said that he put the video and claimed that Hindus are afraid due to COVID-19 cases.
“Yes, it was my video. I reprimanded him because he was lying. He said his name was Rajkumar while his name is Rehmuddin. He wasn’t wearing masks and gloves. We know, 16 vegetable sellers in Kanpur&1 in Lucknow tested COVID-19 positive,” the MLA was quoted as saying by ANI.
Earlier, Suresh Tiwari – BJP MLA from Barhaj Assembly constituency – found himself in hot water after a video of him went viral in which he was reportedly heard saying, “I am saying this openly: don’t purchase vegetables from Muslims.”
