Ex-BJP minority cell leader remains under arrest in Rajasthan, party chooses silence

NO ONE in the BJP minority cell wants to talk about their now-expelled Bikaner unit president, Usman Gani. Days afterGani was expelled from the BJP over remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech referring to Muslims, and two days after he was arrested for alleged “breach of peace”, party leaders are quiet, as are Gani’s family members.

One of the few BJP leaders in the Bikaner minority cell who will talk, on condition of anonymity, says he joined the party due to Gani, attracted by his “hard work” and for “always calling a spade a spade”. “I was already influenced by the BJP. There are many leaders in the minority cell but there is no one here who worked as hard as Gani,” the party leader says, talking about his work during the Assembly elections last year as well as the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls.

“Everyone knows him. He was the face of the party’s minority cell and attended meetings outside Bikaner too,” says the leader, adding that they had jointly campaigned for “Siddhi Baisa (Siddhi Kumari, Bikaner East MLA)” in the Assembly elections.

The BJP minority cell’s state vice-president, Ramzan Ali, who also hails from Bikaner, acknowledges that Gani had been in the party for some time but asserts that it was nowhere close to the 15-20 years he claimed to have been in the Sangh Parivar, first in the ABVP and then the BJP.

“Gani was in the party only for seven-eight years. He was the district vice-president of the minority cell earlier and the district president for the last three years,” says Ali.

He adds that the BJP was right in taking action against Gani. “Since he wasn’t loyal to the party, he was expelled. How can you speak against the party while being in the party?… I have been in the party for the