The "sister of terrorists" veiled reference for Colonel Sofiya Qureshi, who shot to fame during the Operation Sindoor briefings, has landed a senior cabinet minister of BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh in serious legal trouble.
A case has been filed against MP Minister Vijay Shah at Manpur police station in Indore district’s Mhow subdivision.
This comes after a division bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court in Jabalpur took suo motu cognisance of news reports and digital media evidence against Kunwar Vijay Shah.
The court immediately ordered an FIR to be registered under BNS Sections 152, 196(1)(b), and 197(1)(c) against the minister for his disparaging and dangerous comments about Colonel Sofiya Qureshi.
A short time later, MP CM Dr Mohan Yadav posted on X: "Following the MP HC order, instructions have been given to take action regarding the statement of Cabinet Minister Vijay Shah."
As per informed sources within the party in Bhopal, “The state BJP leadership had gone into a huddle with the CM, after his return from Bengaluru late in the evening.”
The High Court had earlier stated in the order that failure to comply with the directions within the stipulated timeframe would prompt the Court to contemplate proceedings against the state's DGP for contempt of court.
Despite growing pressure to resign, Shah has refused to step down from the state cabinet.
Sources in his home district of Khandwa, where he is currently staying, said he intends to present his case before the MP High Court on Thursday morning. The court in Jabalpur will hear the matter on priority.
Shah will decide on resigning only after the hearing.
The Court had earlier directed the matter to be listed on top priority for Thursday. In the eight-page detailed order, the High Court observed that Shah had used scurrilous language against a senior official of the Indian Army.
Highlighting that the armed forces - "perhaps the last institution existing in this country reflecting integrity, industry, discipline, sacrifice, selflessness, character, honour and indomitable courage" - have been targeted by Shah, the High Court observed that the minister used "language of the gutters" against Col Sofiya Qureshi.
Col Querishi, along with Wing Commander Vyomika Singh, was the face of the armed forces briefing the media and the nation on the progress of Operation Sindoor launched by the armed forces against Pakistan.
“At the function in Raikunda village in Mhow (Indore), the minister made a nauseating remark against Col Sofia Qureshi by way of an innuendo which can refer to none other than her alone, as there is no one else who would fit the description of the comment made by the minister. At that public function, he has referred to Col Sofia Qureshi as the sister of the terrorists who carried out the killings of 26 innocent Indians at Pahalgam.
"Further, the newspaper reports and a plethora of digital material available on the internet in which the speech of the minister is clear and unequivocal, where he has referred to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for having sent the sister of the terrorists to sort them out. His comments are disparaging and dangerous, not just to the officer in question but to the armed forces itself," the Court observed.
The High Court directed the state DGP to register an FIR against Shah under BNS Section 152 (any act that endangers the sovereignty, unity, and integrity of India), Section 196(1)(b), which deals with acts prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony between different religious, racial, language or regional groups or castes or communities and which disturbs or is likely to disturb public tranquillity.
“Prima facie, this section - 196(1)(b) - would be applicable as Col Sofia Qureshi is an adherent of the Muslim faith and deriding her by referring to her as the sister of terrorists may be prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony between different religious groups as it has the propensity to fuel an impression that irrespective of the selfless duties of a person towards India, such a person could still be derided only because that person belongs to the Muslim faith. Therefore, prima facie, this Court is satisfied that the offence under Section 196(1)(b) is also committed,” the Court said in the order.
The High Court further directed inclusion of Section 197(1)(c) BNS, which criminalises the act of publishing any assertion, counsel, plea or appeal concerning the obligation of any class of persons, by reason of them being members of any religious, racial, language or regional group or caste or community, and such assertion, counsel, plea or appeal causes or is likely to cause disharmony or feelings of enmity or hatred or ill-will between such members and other persons.
“The statement made by Shah prima facie has the propensity to cause disharmony and feelings of enmity or hatred or ill-will between the members of the Muslim faith and other persons who do not belong to the same religion,” the Court asserted.
While the High Court directed the state DGP to register an FIR against Shah, sources within the BJP have confided to TNIE that the BJP top brass in New Delhi is unhappy and unforgiving with Shah’s remarks. He may well be asked to step down as cabinet minister in MP soon, sources added.
“The BJP’s leadership is very sensitive to any such developments (minister’s remarks). The matter was immediately taken up by the state party leadership with him (Shah) on Tuesday only and he was cautioned over it. The entire country is proud of the brave daughter (Col Sofia Qureshi) and salutes her, no one has the right to disrespect her,” state BJP president VD Sharma told journalists.
Importantly, Sharma - the second-time MP from Khajuraho seat of MP - had on Tuesday evening already rushed senior leaders of the party, including ex-MLA Manvendra Singh, to meet Col Sofia Qureshi’s paternal family members in her ancestral place Nowgong in Chhatarpur district of MP’s Bundelkhand region.
On Monday, while addressing a Halma (traditional practice among tribals for community support and environment conservation) in Indore district’s Mhow, the tribal affairs minister Kunwar Vijay Shah, while lauding PM Narendra Modi’s leadership over Operation Sindoor to avenge the 22 April Pahalgam terror attack, had said, “Those who widowed our daughters, we sent the sister of the same katey-pitey log (same torn people) to screw them.”
Adding in the same vein at the event in Indore’s Mhow subdivision (which houses one of the major bases of the country's armed forces), the MP minister said, “They (terrorists) undressed and killed our Hindus. Now, Modiji couldn’t have done the same, so he sent a sister from their (terrorists’) society, to ensure that if you widowed our sisters, a sister of yours will come and undress you.”
With his veiled “sister of terrorists” reference kicking up a major political row and putting his party under the entire opposition’s scrutiny, Shah, on Tuesday evening, claimed that his remarks were misconstrued by social media. He had regretted and apologised for the remarks.
On Wednesday, the opposition Congress staged protests across Madhya Pradesh, demanding that the minister be sacked immediately as a minister in the Dr Mohan Yadav government.
With the state’s Chief Minister Dr Mohan Yadav being in Bengaluru on Wednesday, it now remains to be seen what actually happens on his return to the state capital in the matter related to Shah, who is currently in his native district Khandwa in southwestern MP.
Shah, who hails from the Gond tribe’s erstwhile royal family of Harda district, is perhaps the biggest tribal face of the BJP in MP, who has won eight successive elections from the Harsud-ST seat of southwestern Khandwa district. He has been a minister in successive BJP regimes in MP, since the one headed by Uma Bharti in 2003.
The 62-year-old senior tribal politician of the BJP has made it a habit of kicking up political rows in the past too due to his public utterances.
Back in April 2013, he had to resign as the state’s Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Welfare Minister, reportedly in the wake of his sexual innuendos about some women BJP leaders and then MP Chief Minister (and current Union Agriculture Minister) Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s wife Sadhna Singh.
In March 2024, he had suggested that the Department of Posts appoint actor-turned-BJP MP Hema Malini as brand ambassador to get more deposits into its investment and saving schemes.
“Make her (Malini) the brand ambassador and then tell me, as we’re Hema Malini’s patthe. We’ll get all the money of poor people out from the banks and put it in the post office,” he had said while inaugurating the post office passport service centre in his native Khandwa district.
In September 2022, he had made a controversial statement about the current Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi remaining unmarried.
(With agency inputs)