Azamgarh terrorists to riots revenge: The best of 'polarising' Amit Shah

Narendra Modi’s right hand man Amit Shah, who has been in charge of the BJP campaign in Uttar Pradesh has made headlines throughout this election season not for his organisational skills, but his provocative speeches, prompting the Congress to complain that he was sent to Uttar Pradesh to ‘polarise’ the election. It’s not as though Shah has had the cleanest of records. Prior to his avatar of poll organiser, he spent a year in prison in connection with the Sorabuddin encounter case. He has also been implicated in the ‘snoopgate’ scam, in which he has been heard giving instructions to security apparatus to monitor the movements of a girl, on the orders of the ‘sahib’, which has been taken to mean Modi. Shah, who was also a part of the RSS has not held back in terms of playing the communal card and has not shied away from making controversial statements,  even inviting a temporary ban by the election commission. Here is a pick of some of his most controversial remarks… so far: [caption id=“attachment_1509093” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Amit Shah. AFP[/caption] “Azamgarh is the base of terrorists as there is no fear of the government, which is advocating their release” This comment has been seen as a veiled remark that Muslims are responsible for terrorism in the state, and has invited angry responses from the Congress, BSP and SP in turn. —“The elections in Uttar Pradesh, especially in western Uttar Pradesh, is an election for honour, for seeking revenge for the insult, and for teaching a lesson to those who committed injustice,” Shah made the remark at a gathering of Jats in Shamli, one of the areas affected by the Muzaffarnagar riots. “Sometimes his mother says something, now his sister said something, God forbid, if he becomes PM will he go back to his mummy asking what to do?” This, while not communally sensitive, was a direct attack on Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, and was one of the ‘personal attacks’ that Priyanka Gandhi was alluding to. — And he did not even spare Priyanka Gandhi. He said her campagining will ‘win TRPs for the Congress party, not votes." Shah later told CNN-IBN, “I never called Priyanka Gandhi a television star. The TRPs are increased by incidents. We have no problem in Priyanka campaigning for her mother and her brother in their bastions. We our fighting out battle and they are is fighting theirs.” “It is the Congress dirty tricks department which is behind the move to appoint the judge at the fag-end of the government’s tenure.” Over the Congress deciding to set up a commission for probe into the snoopgate allegations against him and Modi, Shah had said, “Till now there was a wave of Modi and the BJP in Uttar Pradesh. But now, as he has filed his nomination, this wave has turned into a Tsunami,” With agency inputs