I am proud of my faith, says Varun Gandhi

NEW DELHI - Asserting that he was a ‘Gandhi, a Hindu and an Indian’ in equal measure, an unapologetic Varun Gandhi said here Wednesday that the CD showing him making an inflammatory speech was doctored and that was not his voice, nor his words.

‘I am proud of my faith, not apologising for it,’ Varun Gandhi told reporters while reading out a written statement.

‘I am a victim of a political conspiracy… Those are not my words, that is not my voice. I want to ask the nation to stand by me,’ said the Bharatiya Janata Party’s candidate from Pilibhit constituency in Uttar Pradesh, who is facing a criminal case for his alleged hate-Muslim campaign speeches.

Nothing he had said was ‘intended to insult,’ Varun Gandhi said, adding that he was ‘pro India, not anti anybody’.

Calling himself a proud Hindu, Varun Gandhi said thousands of people from the Hindu community had been arrested under the National Security Act, temples had been vandalised and village pradhans threatened daily.

He said his effort was ‘to restore confidence in the community’.

Pilibhit, he said, was a sensitive border area and there was the widespread fear that arms had been smuggled in.

Declaring that India was ‘a big country with a big heart’, he said the CD was supposed to have been based on a speech given on March 4 but released on March 16.