Mumbai: A video that showed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Kirit Somaiya participating in a garba programme in Mulund on Friday night, just hours after his visit to KEM Hospital to console stampede victims of the Parel-Elphinstone FOB, which so far claimed 23 lives, has gone viral since Saturday morning.
The BJP has not denied the video’s authenticity, even as the Shiv Sena and the Congress, as well as several citizens on social media, ripped into the MP for his insensitivity.
The video of Mr Somaiya playing garba was first uploaded on his wife, Dr Medha Somaiya’s Facebook page, according to social media buzz.
The video captioned “Electronic Dandia organised by Neil Somaiya” was uploaded on Friday at 11.59 pm. Neil, Mr Somaiya’s son, is also a BJP corporator from Mulund.
The stampede on the foot over bridge at Elphinstone station took place on Friday morning. Many garba festival mandals across the city cancelled their programmes as a mark of respect towards the victims and their families. At such a time, Mr Somaiya’s act of allegedly dancing the garba was seen as insensitive.
“This is called an arrogance of power. Mr Somaiya was one of those leaders who used to raise a hue and cry over every local event during the UPA regime. His real face has been exposed with this video,” said Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Jitendra Awhad, who tweeted the video.
The Congress also slammed Mr Somaiya and said, “The BJP must sack Mr Somaiya. This was not right. Mumbai deserves better representatives than him,” said Sanjay Nirupam.
The Asian Age tried to contact Mr Somaiya but he did not reply to the message or receive the call.
In a bid to downplay the public ire, Mumbai BJP chief Ashish Shelar said, “Every sensible leadership should do sensible work. Those who play garba should also do it sensibly. Having said that, on the same night, there was a dinner for football players at the Mayor’s bunglow. This too should have been handled sensibly,” he said.
Mr Somaiya’s alleged participation in the function has also hurt the sentiments of the common people, who reacted strongly on social media. The reaction of Sulesh Karnik, self-proclaimed RSS worker and Mulund (East) resident, has also gone viral on social media. “I am hurt with Mr Somaiya’s behaviour. I voted for him in the 2014 Lok Sabha election. I apologise to Mumbaikars for voting for him then,” Mr Karnik wrote on his FB page.
