Hyderabad:Considered the youngest and rather dynamic face of the BJP in South India, Tejasvi Surya is currently dealing with some bad spotlight for the recent IndiGo flight fiasco in Chennai. Though this is not the first time that the 32-year-old is being slated for his actions, it's mostly what he says than what he does that mires him into a controversy.
Surya has however always managed to smoothly steer through controversies in retrospect -- thanks to his impulsive moves coupled with a bounteous sense of admiration for the BJP top brass which he never shies away from. A lawyer by profession, Tejaswi first held up his presence in the national political circle during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections when he was unexpectedly given the prestigious Bengaluru South Lok Sabha seat, which was highly speculated to fall into the account of Tejaswini Ananthkumar, Union minister Ananth Kumar's widow.
Critics had attributed this sudden preference to a rather young politician by the BJP to his relationship with the Rashtriya Swayamseva Sangh (RSS), which he has been conspicuously vocal about on Twitter -- one of his preferred mediums where he flagrantly professes its ideology which his rivals deem as extreme.
Surya does not however seem to be bothered by even being called a bigot or an extremist for his views wherein he criticises women's reservations or uses questionable semantics for the minority communities in India. The praises that several BJP and RSS functionaries have publicly attributed to the president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha keep him going. Though there have been instances where he has spoken about sensitive issues on a whim, the value he holds for the BJP has barely mellowed down.
Also read:'BJP leader opened emergency exit of IndiGo plane on Dec 10', alleges Tamil Nadu minister
What makes him important for the party is his hold over the Bengaluru South constituency, which is deemed an 'educated' and 'upper caste' region in the South. It has been a BJP bastion since 1989 where the RSS has based many of its operations for decades. The constituency also has a considerable population of the OBCs and the Vokkaliga communities here.
Congress was ruling here before Surya came to glory. He managed to emerge with impressive speed here soon after he won the seat with a whopping 3 lakh votes with less than a month of campaigning. There was no stopping him thereafter as he emerged as the young face of the BJP in one of the important 'upper caste' regions of south India.
Surya ticks a lot of other boxes. Unlike many south Indian politicians, he does not seem opposed to the usage of Hindi. His ardency to the BJP and the RSS top brass has been unwavering. His commitment to his ideology and a rather captivating way of penning or voicing his opinions keeps him afloat, good way or bad.
Sometime after he won the Lok Sabha seat, a screenshot of a deleted tweet by Surya where he openly criticized the women's reservation had gone viral. "With the exception of Women's Reservation in Parliament, Modi govt agenda is inspiring. Dread the day when women's reservation becomes reality," his tweet read. Though the conventional media platforms at the time tried to get a reaction from him, he did not respond. This was perhaps one of the very few times that he did not register a reaction to his statements.
Also read:BJP MP Tejasvi Surya allegedly opened emergency exit of IndiGo flight
Another one of his many statements that stirred controversy are his remarks during a pro-CAA rally in Bengaluru. "People of Bengaluru’s IT sector, BT sector, those contributing to the nation’s economy like lawyers, bank employees, ordinary citizens including auto-rickshaw drivers have gathered here (in support of CAA) today. Only the uneducated, illiterate puncture shop wallahs are against it," Surya said. This came off as an indirect generalization of the Muslim community or those opposing the CAA, triggering a communal row. This was, however, neither his first nor last controversial remark during or after that protest, as the crowd there cheered him for it.
In another one of his tweets, he had mentioned a conversation he had with a student from Christ University, where he had infamously said that 'Muslims must live in harmony with larger Hindu identity'.
"Muslim girl asked me when I mean Hindu identity, does it not have space for Muslims? I said of course Muslims can live, but must live in harmony with the larger Hindu identity. I asked her if Muslims will state they will hold Constitution above Quran in case of conflict between the two," Tejaswi's tweet dated Feb 20, 2019, reads with a thread of his elaborate views on the incident.
This time Surya is being held accountable for his actions, not remarks as usual, after he opened the emergency exit of an IndiGo plane after boarding at Chennai airport last month. The matter did not come to light until a month later on Tuesday. The opposition Congress has raised questions as to why it was not reported earlier. Neither Surya or his office have reacted to the allegations so far.
