Vote and Voting

The video, played repeatedly on Indian news television channels and on websites, shows him denigrating Muslims while addressing an election meeting in his parliamentary constituency in northern Uttar Pradesh, the home state of the charismatic Nehru-Gandhi family.

The election commission, which is overseeing the April-May vote, ruled yesterday that all future rallies held by Varun Gandhi should be monitored and recorded on video, and ordered his party leadership to explain his actions.

Though Gandhi doesn't deny giving the controversial speech, he insisted the video had been "doctored" and that what he said was "mangled".

"I believe very firmly that this is the result of a political conspiracy," he said. "This is not my voice, those are not my words. I've a soft voice, [but in the video] I sound like [Bollywood star] Amitabh Bachchan."

The state election authorities have ordered an investigation, and the local police have registered a criminal case and sent the video for forensic tests. Gandhi is a candidate of the opposition Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), whose leaders often stridently promote Hindu causes.

"The video contains outrageous statements," said Aditi Phadnis, a political analyst. "It's dreadful. If Varun said all that then obviously what propelled him was the desire to polarise voters along communal lines. He wants to consolidate the Hindu vote behind him." A Congress leader demanded that Gandhi be arrested and prosecuted.

Gandhi, 29, is seeking to make his debut entry into parliament from Pilibhit, a constituency long nurtured by his mother, Maneka Gandhi.

In Pilibhit the number of Muslim voters, traditionally hostile to the BJP, has shot up to 420,000, increasing the pressure on Varun Gandhi to mobilise his base. In the video he is seen telling the audience: "Go to your villages and give the call that all Hindus must unite to save this area from becoming Pakistan."

He is even heard mocking a rival candidate, a bearded Muslim, calling him Osama bin Laden, and then saying: "America couldn't get Osama, but Varun Gandhi will catch many after the elections."

"This is not the 'hand' [a reference to the Congress election symbol], this is the hand of the 'lotus' [the BJP symbol]," Gandhi is seen as saying, with his palm raised toward the crowd.

"After the election [this hand] will cut the throat of the circumcised [a derogatory colloquial Hindi reference to Muslims]. Hail Lord Ram!"

All four Nehru-Gandhi family members active in politics are contesting the forthcoming polls from Uttar Pradesh, but from opposite sides of the political divide.

Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi, projected as a future prime minister, are contesting as leaders of the Congress party which is currently in power, while a family feud made Varun and his mother join the opposition BJP.

Until now, despite the family squabble, all the Nehru-Gandhis have had a reputation for being secular and untainted by communal politics. The venomous statements in the campaign trail video have therefore shocked the nation.

If the video is genuine, analysts say, it shows the extent to which some politicians would go to divide voters and win an election. "People who know Varun say he's a very intelligent young man," said Phadnis. "But sometimes people who are too sharp can end up cutting themselves."