BJP MP Paresh Rawal was on Tuesday summoned by Kolkata Police over his ‘cooking fish’ remarks made against illegal Bangladeshis and Rohingyas during the campaign for the Gujarat state elections.
The actor has been asked to appear before the Taltala police station on Monday, December 12.
The controversy erupted after he asked the voters in Gujarat if they will ‘cook fish for the Bengalis’ with their gas connections. He later apologised for his comments and said that he “meant illegal Bangladeshis and Rohingya” people when he asked at a rally what the audience will do with gas cylinders. The actor and BJP leader also took to social media and apologised for his remarks, asserting that they were meant for illegal intruders from Bangladesh and Rohingyas.
However, on December 2, an FIR was filed against Paresh Rawal by West Bengal Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Mohammed Salim. The FIR was filed at Kolkata’s Taltala police station, where Rawal is asked to appear on Monday.
The CPM leader alleged that Rawal’s ‘cooking fish’ remark could foster anti-Bengali sentiments among people of other states in the country, causing problems for expatriate Bengalis. “In this context, I filed a complaint against Paresh Rawal and urged that he receives appropriate punishment,” he said.
The comments were made during his rally in Gujarat’s Valsad. Rawal had said that Gujarat can tolerate inflation but not “Illegal Bangladeshis and Rohingyas”.
Gujarat Police arrests TMC leader Saket Gokhale
The summons to Paresh Rawal came hours after Gujarat Police arrested TMC leader Saket Gokhale after he landed at Jaipur airport. TMC MP Derek O’Brien took to Twitter to inform about Gokhale’s arrest, adding that he was picked up by Police and that at 2 AM he called up his mother to inform her that the police is taking him to Ahmedabad and that he will arrive in the city by noon on Tuesday.
Gokhale, a former RTI ‘activist’ and current Trinamool Congress leader, was caught sharing a fabricated news report about an RTI query and its response that does not exist. He had claimed that ₹30 crores were spent on PM Modi’s Morbi visit, sharing a news clipping from an unnamed Gujarati newspaper, which was claimed to be Gujarat Samachar. But BJP has said that it is fabricated and no such report was published and there is no such RTI reply, and Gujarat Samachar has also said that they have not published such a report.
Citing the so-called report, Gokhale claimed that ₹ 5.5 crore was purely for “welcome, event management, & photography”. He also claimed that “Modi’s event management & PR costs more than the life of 135 people”, as the families of the 135 victims of the tragedy were given ex-gratia of ₹4 lakh each, totalling ₹5 crores.
There was no such RTI and no such media report as claimed by Gokhale.
