Nupur Sharma: Lesser Known Facts And Past Controversies On Suspended BJP Member

Nupur Sharma, the BJP’s national spokesperson was suspended by the party while it expelled its Delhi media head Naveen Kumar Jindal after their alleged derogatory remarks against Prophet Muhammad.

In the midst of objections by Muslim masses over the remarks, the party also gave a statement directed at the concerns of minorities and distancing itself from these members. BJP asserted that it respects all religions as it denounces the vitriol of any religious personality and figure. 

On May 27, 2022, Sharma was involved in a controversy on the Gyanvapi Mosque argument on the Times Now news channel. Reportedly, she had commented that the Islamic prophet Muhammad married a six-year-old bride and had sex with her when her age was nine years. Mohammed Zubair, the co-founder of fact-checking platform Alt News, circulated a video clip of her remarks on social media.

Sharma later alleged that it was a "heavily edited and selected video" and they tried to incriminate her. Pratik Sinha, the other co-founder of Alt News, communicated that it was unedited before including a longer clip which demonstrated the context. This is not the first time Sharma trended on Twitter. 

Nupur Sharma Controversies

Career And ABVP

Sharma associated herself with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the Sangh Parivar, as a student at Delhi University. Winning the presidentship of the students union in 2008, in a notable incident during her stint, she was allegedly leading an ABVP mob to heckle SAR Geelani in a faculty seminar on 'Communalism, Fascism and Democracy: Rhetoric and Reality' as per media reports.

Gujarat Riots Fake News 

Nupur Sharma came under gunfire from Twitter users for allegedly passing off a picture of the 2002 Gujarat riots as that of the violence in West Bengal's Basirhat.

Sharma posted on the micro-blogging site saying, "Since trolls spent a sleepless night covering up Basirhat violence, sharing media pics of the riots. Hope they report this to @WBPolice too.” She then attached an image of charred vehicles along with it.

The Twitterati, however, pointed out to her that the image was from 2002 and accused her of spreading misinformation. Some of the Twitter users attempted to draw the attention of the Delhi Police to the tweet and demanded her arrest. 

Man Stalks Nupur Sharma

In 2017, the Delhi Police arrested a 32-year-old man from Vadodara who sent obscene and threatening messages on Facebook, Twitter, Email and text messages. Earlier, the accused, named Mihir Patel, was charged with breach of peace by the Gujarat Police in Vadodara. Patel was reportedly sending Nupur Sharma obscene and threatening messages via Twitter, Facebook, messages and email. 

“I request all media houses and everybody else not to make my address public. There is a security threat to my family,” Sharma had tweeted, following the incident.

Suggested Reading: The MMS Video Controversy Of Shilpi Raj: Why Is It The Woman’s Fault?