File photo: Targeting PM Modi further, Kharge called the prime minister a “habitual liar”
PATNA/NEW DELHI: Congress party president Mallikarjun Kharge’s remark about PM Narendra Modi’s father raised a furore in BJP on Sunday, with the party announcing a nationwide protest on Monday against Kharge’s “indecent and offensive” remarks.Addressing a gathering at Bapu Sabhagar in Patna, Kharge was interrupted by a young member of the audience who shouted “Modi nahin jayega (Modi will not go)”. The Congress chief shot back, saying, “Modi ka baap bhi jayega (Modi’s father, too, will have to go)”.The youth was removed from the venue by the organisers of the function marking the 139th birth anniversary of Bihar’s first chief minister Shri Krishna Sinha.Union home minister Amit Shah targeted Congress for its frequent personal attacks on Modi and blamed it on simmering frustration within the party over its continuous poll losses over the last 12 years.
Not the first time Cong has abused Modi or his family, says Shah
"Kharge has broken all norms of decency by commenting on Modi’s father,” Shah said, adding Congress was frequently crossing the limits of decency under Rahul Gandhi. “This is not the first time Congress has abused Modi or his family,” he said, recalling barbs like “maut ka saudagar” for him and abusive reference to his mother.
BJP announced the protests against Congress after an organisational meeting, which was presided over by party chief Nitin Nabin and Shah. Nabin said a certain decorum was expected of the political opposition but it had now become a trend for Rahul and the entire opposition to drag dead family members in their speeches. BJP MP Dharmendra Pradhan said, “Having forgotten the bounds of propriety in political opposition, Congress is now resorting solely to personal insults.
”Stepping up his attack on BJP over Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, Kharge described the ongoing protests against the exercise as the “second war for independence”.“If people have no voting rights, the country will be enslaved. It (the protests) is the second war for independence. We will have to fight for our vote, voting rights, for democracy and to save the Constitution,” Kharge said, demanding the rollback of SIR and the use of ballot papers in elections. He alleged “vote chori” in Haryana, Maharashtra, Bihar and West Bengal, and demanded govts formed through stolen votes be removed.Kharge targeted BJP ally and JD(U) national president Nitish Kumar, saying he had roots in the socialist ideology of Ram Manohar Lohia and Jayaprakash Narayan but ended up in the “lap of BJP and RSS”. Rahul Gandhi, he said, “is alive, is fighting, and also forging ahead by taking all along with him”.