New Delhi: Madhya Pradesh Congress leader Raja Pateria is in the eye of a political storm after he recently exhorted an audience to kill Prime Minister Narendra Modi in order to save the Constitution.
His remarks were heard in a video which has since gone viral.
Addressing his supporters, Pateria said Modi would “end elections”, and that he would divide (the country) on the basis of religion, caste and language. The state’s former minister also said the lives of Dalits, tribals and minorities were in danger. “If the Constitution is to be saved, then be prepared to kill Modi,” Pateria says next.
Pateria later clarified that his remark was taken out of context. What he actually meant when he said “kill the PM”, was to defeat the Prime Minister in the upcoming elections, Pateria told India Today.
“It might have happened in the flow. But the person who recorded it just picked it out of context,” he added.
BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargia told India Today that the Congress has forever perpetuated the “politics of violence”. “They should learn from the Gujarat model of development. The Congress says such things in frustration… the frustration from loss,” he said.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has reacted sharply to Pateria’s comments. He said: “The Congress is not able to compete with Prime Minister Modi on the field, so a Congress leader talks about killing Modi. The Congress’ true face is now revealed.”
In the recently concluded Assembly elections, the BJP took Gujarat for the seventh consecutive term, winning a historic 156 seats of the 182-constituency Assembly.
The Congress, however, toppled the incumbent BJP in Himachal Pradesh, picking up 40 seats in the 68-member Assembly.
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