A stark remark by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge about Prime Minister Narendra Modi at an event in Patna triggered a massive row on Sunday as the BJP alleged he had insulted not just the PM and his late father but the country too. Kharge made the comment in response to a man in the crowd who was heard saying the phrase “… Modi nahin jayega ( will not go/lose power ).”
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) attacked Kharge as soon as the remark went viral.
BJP spokesperson Tuhin A Sinha, in a post on X, said, “Such disgusting, petulant, uncouth behaviour from Kharge ji shows the growing frustration in Congress ranks — all their attempts to manufacture anarchy in the name of protests have failed.”
The alleged heckler, Santosh Kumar, was thrashed by Congress supporters. “I was saying that ‘unless there is a revolt, Modi will not go’. The exchange took place at an event marking the 139th birth anniversary of Shri Krishna Singh, Bihar’s first chief minister. Now it seems there’s a whole bunch of them.”
“Modi ka baap bhi jayega (Even his father will have to go),” Kharge said twice. Outside the hall, Santosh Kumar said he was not a heckler. He claimed he was misunderstood and would “actually want Modi to go”. But only a part of it was heard and was misunderstood,” the not-a-heckler said after having been pushed out of the venue. Kharge was indeed saying the words “Modi will go to jail” — alleging electoral fraud that’s been the centre of major protests this month — when Santosh Kumar’s half-sentence rang in the hall. That birthed the misunderstanding, he said. A ruckus broke out during Kharge’s speech when the words “Modi kahin nahin jayega ” were heard across the hall, prompting an angry comment from the Congress chief. The man who said those words was immediately surrounded by attendees who threw him to the ground and thrashed him before throwing him out. Union Minister Giriraj Singh, who is a Lok Sabha member from Bihar where the episode unfolded, said, “I used to think only Rahul Gandhi (Leader of Opposition) is foolish.
