Shazia Ilmi at the receiving end

New Delhi: AAP leader Shazia Ilmi on Wednesday was at the receiving from all across the political spectrum, following her controversial video coming to light asking Muslims to be communal. The BJP sharply criticised AAP for the brazenly communal remarks, while Congress asked the Election Commission to take cognizance and crack the whip against Shazia Ilmi. Significantly, Shazia Ilmi, who is the AAP candidate in Ghaziabad parliamentary constituency in Uttar Pradesh, and has been know for taking high moral ground against the Congress, was found indulging in communal talk while discussing with some Muslim clerics. “Muslims ought to be communal this time,” she had remarked in the controversial video.

Shazia Ilmi tweeted, “Well someone was accusing Muslims of being communal. I think Muslims keep voting for Congress, which uses them as vote bank.” The Aam Admi Party distanced itself from her remark and said she should not have said it. Manish Sisodia, AAP spokesperson, said: "It is wrong. She should not have said it. The party does not believe in this." It is a short 1.19 minute video clip, apparently a sting operation, where Ilmi is seen talking to Muslims. The video, believed to be shot in Mumbai, where she had gone for campaigning for AAP's South Mumbai candidate Mira Sanyal, shows Ilmi talking with her head covered with a dupatta. Mumbai goes to polls on April 24. “Here helping the Congress win, there someone else. Please do not be so secular. Muslims are secular. They will continue to vote for others. Other parties don't do such things?” she said.

“Muslims are very secular. Muslims ought to be more communal. (They) do not vote for their own. (AAP leader) Arvind Kejriwal is your own. I say, it is enough of secularism,” Shazia Ilmi is seen as saying in the video. Later talking to a television channel, she did not deny the contents of the video but said she does not remember where she said it as she had attended several meetings. “I have not said anything wrong. The Congress has done nothing for us all these years,” she said. She also said, “This is my interpretation of secular versus communal.”