Prophet remark row: Samajwadi Party leader supports BJP’s Nupur Sharma, gets axed

New Delhi: A Samajwadi Party (SP) leader on Tuesday faced the axe for coming out in support of Nupur Sharma, who has been in the eye of storm over controversial comments on Prophet Muhammad during a TV debate.

Muslim community has organised protests while religious fanatics have gone a step further and are threatening the BJP leader for alleged blasphemous remarks on their god. However, the SP leader who believed that Nupur’s remarks was not objectionable and rallied behind her, got sacked from the party at the orders of party chief Akhilesh Yadav.

Ankur Yadav, the sacked SP leader is chief of party’s student wing in Baghpat district. In a Facebook post, he said that he supported Nupur on the entire episode. He wrote that every Hindu person was standing behind Nupur Sharma and so was he. This left the top SP leadership irked and it issued orders to sack him. Following orders from top, party’s student wing chief Digvijay Singh Deo on Tuesday removed him from the post.

Nupur Sharma, the national spokesperson of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was suspended from the party after her remarks stoked a big row not just in India but also in the Arab world.

Notably, Akhilesh Yadav had demanded legal action against BJP’s spokespersons Nupur Sharma & Naveen Kumar Jindal for their controversial statements on Prophet Muhammad. But, as the voices of support emerged from within his party, he got miffed & upset with its own rank. It is believed that SP’s main voter base is said to be Muslim community and the party doesn’t want to be seen on the wrong side. The quick action against Ankur Yadav is a step in that direction.

This is not the first time that SP supremo has shown the door to its leaders, who came out in support of Hindu religion or Hinduism. Days ago, the party sacked its Muslim leader Rubina Khanam as she expressed support for the Hindu community.

Rubina Khanam, speaking on the Gyanvapi mosque complex row, had said that if it is proven in court that the mosque was built after demolishing temple, the Muslim brothers should hand over the land to Hindus and set an example.