Congress protests across Madhya Pradesh over Vijayvargiya’s remarks against Rahul Gandhi

Congress leaders and workers, including many women, slapped, kicked, and struck effigies of Madhya Pradesh Legislative Affairs Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya with sandals and shoes before setting them on fire at several places across the state on Friday.

The protests were in retaliation to Vijayvargiya’s derogatory remarks against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, whom he accused of lacking Indian values because he kissed his younger sister publicly.

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In Vijayvargiya’s hometown, Indore, women Congress workers led the protest by thrashing his effigy with footwear before burning it.

Similarly, the District Congress Committee in Panna staged a demonstration and burnt his effigy, clashing with police during the protest.

Protests were also held in several other districts across Madhya Pradesh, where heated altercations between Congress workers and the police were reported.

Vijayvargiya had made the controversial remarks at a BJP event in Shajapur on 25 September, organized to commemorate Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay’s birth anniversary.

“The Leader of Opposition kisses his younger sister publicly at a busy square. I want to ask if any of you has ever kissed your daughter or sister in public?” Vijayvargiya said in his speech.

“This shows a lack of Indian values and depicts foreign influence,” he added.

“In our culture, we do not even drink water at our sister’s house. My father would carry his own water pot whenever he visited his married daughter at her in-laws’ village,” the minister said, asserting that “India will run according to Indian values and traditions.”

Vijayvargiya’s comments referred to the kiss Rahul Gandhi gave his sister Priyanka Gandhi on the cheek during the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ in 2023.

The remarks, however, have backfired badly, putting the BJP in a difficult position. The controversy comes at a time when the saffron party has been aggressively attacking the Congress and other opposition parties for making insulting comments against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s late mother and for circulating derogatory videos about the PM and his family.

This is not the first time Vijayvargiya has courted controversy with his statements.

On earlier occasions, he likened girls wearing makeup and certain outfits to *Shoorpanakha* (Ravana’s sister), and said he disliked women in short dresses. He also remarked that children without values turn into “Sonam,” referring to Sonam Raghuvanshi—accused of murdering her husband, Indore businessman Raja Raghuvanshi, in Shillong during their honeymoon.

In another instance, he described India’s independence as “kati, phati azadi” (slit, incomplete freedom), adding, “The day will come when India becomes ‘Akhand Bharat’ again, and that day the tricolour will fly over Islamabad too.”