“Check karo, check karo“, said someone as officials rifled through BJP’s poll publicity material in Mumbai’s Ghatkopar. First came the Modi masks, then caps and other publicity material out of the big cardboard box as another official made notes. Among them was a rectangular shaped item, which someone said was a “gold biscuit”. That video with the “gold biscuit” reference is now in wide circulation.
It later turned out that it was a plastic perfume bottle, which was to be distributed along with other material among the party workers.
“My family was in the car. They had gone out to eat ice-cream. While coming back, the car was stopped by the squad. And they were taken to a police station. I was called over,” said Ajay Badgujar, BJP’s District Vice President from north central Mumbai.
Was the party distributing gold among voters, NDTV asked Mr Badgujar.
“Bilkul nahi, sir. Ye BJP ki kit hai (Absolutely no, sir. This is BJP’s poll kit),” he answered, swatting away the allegation.
“It was election team’s squad. There was a box in the car. You can see the kit. You will see we have the publicity material. It contains Modi face masks, caps and other publicity material,” he underlined.
Mr Badgujar blamed the opposition of and accused it of defaming the national party.
“The gold biscuit that you are talking about. This is that plastic biscuit. This is not a biscuit but a perfume bottle, but the opposition has to make a mountain out of a molehill. So they are calling perfume bottle a gold biscuit,” he said.
The leader further explained that he was made to wait at the police station for hours and out of frustration referred to the plastic bottle as gold biscuit.
“I called it so. It was late in the night, the squad was not listening to us. We were called to the police station and made to sit for 3-4 hours. We were angry and when we were asked what is this, I said, ‘See it for yourself. It is gold biscuit’. When we said it is nothing, they did not understand. Then what will someone say,” said the BJP leader.
The leader clarified that it was his own daughter who put out the video where he can be heard calling the bottle gold biscuit.
“Chunaav ka mahaul hone ki wajah se sabko aisa lag raha hai. Viksit bharat banne jaa raha hai (Because of polls, people think this is the case. But we are working towards a Viksit Bharat),” he further added.
The leader said that if these allegations won’t stop, he will be forced to file a police complaint.
“If nothing happens then I will file a police complaint. This is being done to defame us. We will take the help of the law,” he underscored.
