Kshatriya remarks: Rupala apologises again, Congress leader files defamation complaint

At the meeting, Rupala said, “I am full of regret, beyond measure, that such words slipped out my mouth. In my entire life, there is no record of me having retracted a comment after saying something. But it happened during the election and that too at an event that was unscheduled (for me). After winding up the day’s events, I had gone there to listen to Karshan Sagathiya’s bhajans. It was not an event meant for such utterances. Due to my remarks at that event, today, my party is suffering. There can be nothing more painful than that. With folded hands, I apologise to this community not for me but for the fact that my party had to suffer due to me,” Rupala said.

On Thursday, in his complaint filed with a magisterial court in Rajkot, Gohil referred to a purported video of Rupala’s comments. “Two people came to me and told me that Rupala said that ‘Kshatriyas were darpok (coward) and nami jay teva (those who can kneel down)’.  As they told me this, I was deeply pained and felt that I was losing the pride that I had for my ancestors. Wherever I am going these days, I hear only one thing about my Kshatriya community — that kings and emperors bowed to the British, broke bread with them and married their daughters with them,” Gohil stated in his complaint.

“As a member of the Kshatriya community, I felt Rupala defamed me with his remarks and therefore, I filed a complaint with the court, seeking criminal proceedings against Rupala under IPC sections 499 (criminal defamation) and 500 (punishment for defamation),” Gohil told The Indian Express. Sanjay Pandya, Gohil’s advocate, said, “Court has recorded Gohil’s statement on oath but ruled it will initiate an inquiry under CrPC Section 200 to examine the complaint further and to ascertain if a prima facie case is made out.” Pandya said the court has fixed April 12 as the next date of hearing.

The complaint against Rupala, who is BJP’s LS candidate for Rajkot, comes about a week after the Union Minister made the comments while addressing a gathering of the Dalit community in Rajkot on March 22. In a purported video of Rupala’s speech, he is heard saying: “Others also ruled us. So did the British and they spared no efforts to persecute. Even the kings bowed (before them). They broke bread with them and married their daughters to them. But my Rukhi (Dalit) community neither changed their religion nor established any ties though they were persecuted the most. They didn’t budge.”