‘Badey daraawne naam hotey hain inke... Karimullah, Mazharullah... Varun Gandhi kaat daalega...’

The following are excerpts from speeches that Varun Gandhi is shown as delivering in at least two locations earlier this month in Pilibhit, from where he is contesting as the BJP candidate. The speeches figure in a video recording viewed by The Indian Express. On the directions of the Election Commission, the police today registered a criminal case against Gandhi.

Yeh panja nahi hai, yeh kamal ka haath hai. Yeh kat** ke galey ko kaat dega chunaav ke baad. Jai Shri Ram! Ram ji ki jai! Varun Gandhi kaat daalega! Kaat denge us haath ko, kaat denge, kaat daalega!

[This is not the (Congress symbol) ‘hand’, this is the hand of the ‘lotus’. It will cut the throat of the (derogatory reference to a Muslim) after the elections... Varun Gandhi will cut... Cut that hand, cut it, cut it.]

Apne jao, apne gaon mein jao aur halla karo ki saara Hindu ek tarfa ho jao, chhetra ko Pakistan hone se bachao, aur saara Hindu ek tarfa ho jao!

[Go to your villages and give the call that all Hindus must unite to save this area from becoming Pakistan…]

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Poll dates any day, UPA clears building of 1 million houses

The UPA government today cleared a scheme to build a million “affordable” houses across the country over four years to bridge the glaring gap in home-ownership and kick start the sputtering economy. The scheme — to be notified next month — was cleared today, barely days before the Election Commission is expected to notify the elections and bring the code of conduct into effect.

A meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) gave the go ahead for construction of a million houses in partnership with the private sector over the next four years.

The scheme, though targeted at housing for middle and low-income families, will also have 2.5 lakh houses for the economically weaker section (EWS).

The houses will have a plinth area of 300-1,200 sq ft and will be sold at a predetermined price that is expected to be lower than the market price.

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For clean polls in Congress youth wings, Rahul turns to former Election Commission

Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi has asked former Election Commission (EC) officials to help conduct organisational elections. So when the Indian Youth Congress (IYC) kickstarts direct elections for its Punjab unit in October, right from the block president to the state chief, K J Rao, who as an EC observer made a name during the Bihar elections of 2005, will act as the watchdog to ensure that criminal elements don’t find their way into the organisation.

“Rahul Gandhi has accepted our suggestion that any candidate found to have committed a crime punishable for two years under the law should be barred from contesting the organisational elections,” Rao told The Indian Express.

Rahul got in touch with former Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) J M Lyngdoh some three months ago to streamline the organisational polls in the IYC and the National Students Union of India, the two organisations under his charge. Lyngdoh, in turn, directed him to Delhi based Rao.

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