JAMMU: A day after serving a show-cause notice to its former legislator Vikram Randhawa for his hateful remarks against a particular community, the J&K BJP removed him from all party posts, including that of the UT secretary, on Tuesday.
The move came after Randhawa, in a video that went viral on social media, was allegedly found making offensive remarks about the community following Pakistan’s win in the recent T-20 cricket world cup. The party’s disciplinary committee has already initiated proceedings against the former MLC while J&K Police has filed an FIR in this regard.
BJP’s UT vice-president Sham Choudhary — former minister and former MLA (Suchetgarh) — will be taking over Randhawa’s role.
The show-cause notice served on Monday had asked Randhawa to explain his position on the issue within 48 hours besides issuing a public apology. He was also directed against addressing the media till the proceedings were over.
J&K BJP president Ravinder Raina had said Randhawa’s remarks were against the party’s basic principles which believed in respecting all faiths.
“This is unacceptable to the party and has brought (us) disrepute and embarrassment. Such conduct is likely to dent the party’s public image,” disciplinary committee chairman Sunil Sethi had said on Monday.
In May, Randhawa was served a similar notice after he levelled corruption charges against Union minister Jitendra Singh over the issue of mining policy, over which he had even threatened to immolate himself.
(with inputs from Saleem Pandit)