TOI

New Delhi, Mar 27: BJP's young Lok Sabha debutant Varun Gandhi, who has turned into the party's newest Hindutva face, will not move Supreme Court to defend himself in connection with the 'hate speech' he made in Pilibhit, Uttar Pradesh.

"We will not move the Supreme Court”, Varun Gandhi's lawyer Ryan Karanjewala said on Friday.

Varun Gandhi's anticipatory bail expires today. He had received anticipatory bail from the Delhi High Court on March 20 after an FIR was lodged against him for his alleged 'hate speech' earlier this month.

The question now is, whether Varun will court arrest in Pilibhit and project himself as a 'political martyr'.

Sources said Varun would reach the Pilibhit court on Saturday in what is seen as a shrewd move to play victim and turn the row over his hate speech into an emotional campaign theme.

When contacted, Varun, whose plea to get the FIR registered against him for his purported anti-Muslim remarks was dismissed, refused to confirm the plan.

But that his camp has decided to shift into aggressive gears was evident when Varun's mother Maneka Gandhi stepped out to defend him and launch a scathing attack on Congress. "Congress is behind the conspiracy to defame Varun," Maneka said days after Varun's cousins Priyanka and Rahul disapproved of the remarks attributed to the BJP candidate from Pilibhit.

In deciding to appear before the court before he is asked to do so, the Varun camp seems to have done its calculations well. While it is designed to pre-empt any directive from the court to arrest him, the appearance will also work to the advantage of Varun's candidature by rallying Hindutva sentiments behind him.

While he can hope to be seen as someone who has won the first round if he is granted bail, a brief presence in jail will bestow the status of `martyr' on him.

Maneka's comments, besides the anger against the criticism from Priyanka and Rahul, also reflected a plan. She blamed the Congress for the anti-Sikh riots which resulted in the killing of `thousands of innocent Sikhs'. The attack may find resonance among Sikhs who have a significant presence in the constituency. Significantly, Varun's rival from Congress V M Singh is a Sikh and one of the charges against the BJP candidate is that he made some crude remarks against the community.

Earlier, Varun had moved the Allahabad High Court for dismissal of the FIR against him but his plea was quashed by the court.