BJP Lok Sabha member Nishikant Dubey on Sunday hurled a communal slur at former Election Commission chief S.Y. Quraishi, saying he had not been an “election commissioner” but a “Muslim commissioner”.

The four-term MP, widely viewed as the BJP leadership’s hatchet man, had on Saturday accused the Supreme Court of “inciting religious wars in the country”, two days after the court red-flagged some of the provisions of the Waqf Amendment Act.

That earned him a warning from party president J.P. Nadda. But Dubey was at it again a day later, strengthening the view that such reprimands are an eyewash and that the motormouth MP has the licence to say what the BJP cannot itself be seen
as saying officially.

“You were not an election commissioner, you were a Muslim commissioner,” the MP from Godda, Jharkhand, said in response to an April 17 post on X by Quarishi that criticised the new waqf legislation.

Dubey alleged that “the highest number of Bangladeshi infiltrators” were enrolled as voters in Santhal Pargana, Jharkhand, during Quarishi’s tenure as poll panel chief.

He went on to claim that India belonged to Hindus and the “tribals, Jains and Buddhists associated with them”. He advised Quraishi to unite and not divide the country.

Nadda, on a visit to his home state of Himachal Pradesh, had not spoken till late Sunday evening on Dubey’s salvo at Quraishi. On social media platforms, the saffron ecosystem oozed support for Dubey.

Quraishi’s April 17 post had said the new Waqf Act was “undoubtedly a blatantly sinister/ evil plan of the govt to grab Muslim lands”.

“I’m sure SC will call it out. Misinformation by the mischievous propaganda machine has done its job well,” Quraishi had added.

On Saturday, speaking to news agency ANI, Dubey had said: “The Supreme Court is responsible for inciting religious wars in the country. The Supreme Court is going beyond its limits.”

Hours later, Nadda had distanced the party from Dubey’s remark and another party MP’s attack on the Supreme Court, saying these were made in “personal capacity”.

“(The) BJP neither agrees with such statements nor does it ever support such statements. BJP completely rejects these comments,” Nadda said in an X post.

“I have instructed both of them and everyone else not to make such statements.”

Most BJP leaders were confident that the party would not punish Dubey and, if compelled by political circumstances, would at best take some token action.

“Why will the party act against him? After all, he is voicing the top leadership’s grouse against the Supreme Court,” a party MP said.

Dubey’s importance to the BJP is highlighted by the role he plays when the Lok Sabha is in session. He often speaks on key issues, making hawkish comments, and leads attacks against key Opposition leaders from the Congress’s Rahul Gandhi to Trinamool’s Mahua Moitra.

During the debate on the women’s reservation bill in the Lok Sabha in 2023, the party had picked Dubey in preference to its women members as its lead speaker.

Dubey heads the parliamentary committee on communication and information technology and is a member of several other key House panels. He was also a member of the joint parliamentary committee that cleared the Waqf Amendment Bill.

The MP led the attack against Mahua in the previous Lok Sabha, and was widely seen as single-handedly responsible for securing her expulsion from the House in December 2023 in connection with the cash-for-query controversy.

Dubey had targeted Mahua after she accused him of obtaining “fake degrees”.

Mahua, re-elected from Krishnanagar in 2024, attacked Dubey on Sunday.

“Remember - a pitbull does nothing without its master’s command. Glad entire country is watching @BJP4India proxy attacks on judiciary. Brazen attempt to browbeat bench. India’s lowest hour to be ruled by ignorant bullies,” she wrote on X.

Dubey has also attacked the Gandhis in the Lok Sabha, accusing them of conspiring with US billionaire and philanthropist George Soros to destabilise the country.

Contempt plea

A Supreme Court lawyer, Anas Tanveer, representing one of the litigants against the waqf act in the apex court, wrote to attorney-general R. Venkatramani on Sunday seeking his consent to initiate contempt proceedings against Dubey.

“I am writing this letter under Section 15(1)(b) of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, read with Rule 3(c) of the Rules to Regulate Proceedings for Contempt of the Supreme Court, 1975, to humbly seek your kind consent for initiating criminal contempt proceedings against Shri Nishikant Dubey… for statements made by him in public that are grossly scandalous, misleading, and aimed at lowering the dignity and authority of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India,” Tanveer’s letter said.