Several political leaders, including Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, have condemned the Congress and its allies for allegedly facilitating abusive and offensive sloganeering against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his late mother during the Mahagathbandhan’s ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’ in Bihar’s Darbhanga.
Shah, addressing the NDA Panchayat Pratinidhi Sammelan in Guwahati, slammed the ‘politics of hatred’ by Rahul Gandhi and termed the Bihar incident as something ‘stooping to absurd levels in public life’.
He also demanded an apology from Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on the issue.
“Congress leaders have committed the most condemnable act by using derogatory words against PM Modi’s mother during their so-called Ghuspaithiya Bachao Yatra. I condemn it. I urge Rahul Gandhi that if he has even a little bit of shame left, he must apologise to Modi ji, to his late mother, and to the people of this country,” the Union home minister said.
BJP’s Bihar unit, while condemning the incident, lodged complaints with the police at several places in Darbhanga and Patna.
Also, senior BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar Samrat Choudhary strongly denounced the incident. Similarly, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar condemned the alleged use of abusive language against the prime minister and said the use of derogatory language against him at the dais of the Congress and RJD programme is highly objectionable.
“It is extremely inappropriate”, he added.
BJP chief JP Nadda also slammed Congress for the incident, saying it must be condemned. He also demanded an apology from Rahul Gandhi.
Along with these leaders, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav slammed the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) after an alleged video showed a person hurling abuses at the Prime Minister and his late mother.
He demanded an apology, saying that the public will not tolerate such statements. “I strongly condemn in the harshest words the indecent language used for the late revered mother of the successful Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi ji in the so-called Voter Adhikar Yatra of the Congress. This abusive language cannot be the language of this country, nor can it be the language of Bihar. Neither Bihar will tolerate such statements, nor will the country tolerate them. Congress and RJD should immediately apologise,” the chief minister wrote in a post on X.
Earlier on Thursday, Chief Ministers of Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh – Bhajanlal Sharma and Vishnu Deo Sai – respectively, criticised the Congress and the RJD for “crossing all limits of shamelessness”. “Congress-RJD in Bihar have crossed all limits of shamelessness. The indecent remarks made by Rahul Gandhi and Tejashwi Yadav on the late revered mother of PM Modi, from the stage, are highly condemnable. The country will never forgive Congress-RJD for this act,” the Rajasthan CM said.
“Indecent comments made about the respected Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the platform of Congress and RJD are not just an attack on a person, it is an attack on the soul and culture of entire India,” Sai said in a post on X.
Another BJP leader – Krishna Singh Kallu – has called for stopping the Opposition’s rally against the alleged “vote theft” in the poll-bound state. “Today, we have come to the Gandhi Maidan police station and have given an application for taking legal action against Rahul Gandhi, in which an FIR has been registered in the Gandhi Maidan PS. We will not allow Rahul Gandhi’s program to take place in Patna. The people of Bihar will not allow it to happen,” he said.
In the national capital, BJP MP Sambit Patra targeted Rahul Gandhi, calling him the “new Mani Shankar Aiyar of Congress” and alleging that his repeated use of derogatory language against PM Modi reflected the Opposition’s “arrogance and political frustration.”
It is “deeply disturbing” and a matter of “shame” for a party that once associated itself with the freedom struggle, he said. “The same party that followed Mahatma Gandhi’s ideals has now turned into a ‘Gali Wali Congress’, a party belonging only to the Gandhi family,” he remarked.
The BJP MP also accused LoP Rahul Gandhi of undermining constitutional institutions by repeatedly branding them “chor”. “There was a time when the party’s slogan was ‘Gali Gali Congress Hai’. Today, it has become ‘Gaali Wali Congress Hai’. If they think abuse would help them politically, good luck to them. No one has ever progressed in this country through abuses,” Patra asserted.
Responding to all the criticism, Gandhi, however, wrote, “Truth and non-violence prevail, untruth and violence cannot stand before them. Beat and break, as much as you want to beat and break, we will continue to protect the truth and the Constitution. Satyameva Jayate.”
The INDIA bloc’s Voter Adhikar Yatra is part of its outreach campaign in poll-bound Bihar, aimed at consolidating anti-BJP votes.